Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

GREEK SOCIAL STRUCTURE

1976; Wiley; Volume: 268; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Romeno

10.1111/j.1749-6632.1976.tb47667.x

1749-6632

D.G. Tsaoussis,

Social Policy and Reform Studies

Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesVolume 268, Issue 1 p. 429-441 GREEK SOCIAL STRUCTURE Greek Social Structure D.G. Tsaoussis, D.G. Tsaoussis Pantios School of Political Sciences Athens, GreeceSearch for more papers by this author D.G. Tsaoussis, D.G. Tsaoussis Pantios School of Political Sciences Athens, GreeceSearch for more papers by this author First published: February 1976 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1976.tb47667.xCitations: 4AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Reference 1 The total Greek population in this wider area was estimated to be about 7 million ca. 1912. It was distributed as follows: Greece proper (1907) 2,632,000; Macedonia 650,000; Epirus 306,000; Thrace 421,000; Constantinople 300,000; Crete 308,000; Aegean Islands 465,000; Cyptru 235,000; Anatolia 1,684,000. (PALLIS, A.A., 1928. “Les effets de la guerre sur la population de la Grèce” IN Les effets économiques et sociaux de la guerre en Grèce. A. Andréadès a.o. P.U.F.: 147. Paris. To these should be added some 600,000 persons still in Russia by 1919 (PALLIS, ibid.: 150) and the sizeable Greek communities in Balkan and Middle Eastern states like Bulgaria, Rumania, Egypt, etc. 2 Cf. TSAOUSSIS, D.G. 1971. Morphologia tis Neohellinikis Koinonias.: 13–16 &: 153–154. Athens. 3 The populations of the territories annexed at the years of their respective annexation were as follows (in thousands): Ionian Islands (1864) 218.9; Thessaly (1881) 333.9; Epirus (1913) 292.9; Macedonia (1913) 1,085.5; Thrace (1913) 202.7; Aegean Islands (1913) 260.1; Crete (1913) 346.6. It represented a total of 2,741.6 thousand people. (See N.S.S.G. 1966. Demographic Trends and Population Projections of Greece 1960–1985.: 12. Athens.). 4 The evolution of the population of the Peloponnesos during the period under consideration was as follows: 433,736 in 1839 (53% of the total Greek population); 609.008 in 1870 (42%); 902.647 in 1907 (34%); 933,177 in 1920 (19%). 5 One wonders how typical statements like the following can be. “After the war of 1912 and the liberation of Macedonia many of those who had emigrated to the U.S.A. returned to Kozani, in the hope that in the liberated fatherland they would find better living conditions and governmental support and protection. Unfortunately the hopes of the repatriated were not fulfilled. (…) To the material stimuli (for emigration) another one was added, of a moral nature (this time): the disappointment of the liberated, and especially the ones who returned from the United States, on account of the inefficiency of the Administration. The idea the people of Kozani had formed about the agents of authority is characteristically expressed by the belief that coming across one of them in the streets was a bad omen!” (MANOU, E.B. 1917. “He metanastefsis en ti eparchia Kozanis”In He helliniki metanastefsis. A.M. Andreadis, Ed.: 347. Athens. “The so-called old-Greeks, who had a higher political conscience—representing all their intellectual activity—prefects, civil servants, officers and commissioners, came to My tilene with a feeling of superiority which they could not hide. The people of Mytilene did not like it.” (PANSELINOS, A. 1974. Tote pou zousame…. 2:30. Kedros. Athens.). 6 “An under-registration of vital events resulted in rates which for most of the period are too low and not compatible with the trend of population development as depicted in the census series.” (VALAORAS, V.G. 1960. “A Reconstruction of the Demographic History of Modern Greece”. In The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly xxxviii (2): 115–139. 7 Since her constitution into a state, Greece has manifested, in the assistance of refugees, an action that deserves attention. (…) By the decision of Capodistrias, first Governor of Greece, and later by royal decree, lands were ceded to the refugees from Crete, who settled therein in colonies, assisted further by gifts in money and in goods.” (AILIANOS, M. 1921. The Work of Public Assistance in Greece.: 7. Athens.) The decrees referred to were issued on March 13, 1931; October 13 and 14, 1834; September 15, 1848; April 22; 1850, etc. (AILIANOS: 8–10). 8 AILIANOS, 7 pages 61 and 13, respectively. It should be noted however that the Greek edition of Ailianos' book (To ergon tis Hellinikis perithalpseos. 1921. Athens, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pages 61 and 13) estimates the total number of refugees at 829,350 persons and the refugees of Greek nationality at 806,170 persons. 9 Cf. PETROPOULOS, J.A. 1968. Politics and Statecraft in the Kingdom of Greece, 1833–1843.: 22–23 & 486–491. Princeton University Press, Princeton , N.J. 10 PETROPOULOS. 9 : 487–488. 11 Cf. DIMARAS, C. Th. 1970.“ Megali Idea” To Vima January 9. 12 The following statement offers support to the argument presented in the text. “The grave danger presented itself of including in the Constitution an article and clauses dividing the race. The majority of the representatives could not understand that state and race should be united in the struggle for rebirth and rehabilitation: that the race was looking forward to the state and the state to the race; that the future of the state could not depend solely upon its meagre forces but (instead the state) should draw on the resources of the entire race.” (ASPREA, G. n.d. Politiki Istoria tis Neoteras Ellados. Reprinted. Vol. A: 137). 13 In a time of uncertainty and upheaval, ideology serves both as a lifebuoy of stability in a maelstrom of change and as a chart that promises safe arrival at the desired goal. It can sanction the rejection of present reality because it assures the way to an acceptable new order. (…) Ideology fills the psychological needs of its adherents by making the present time of crisis livable.” (.ZARTMANN, I.W. 1966. “National Interest and Ideology.” In African Diplomacy Studies in the Determinants of Foreign Policy. V. McKay, Ed.: 38. Pall Mall Press. London. 14 Contemporary as against modern. The beginnings of the latter should be placed conventionally at 1204 (seizure of Constantinople by the Franks in the course of the Fourth Crusade). At that time we can trace the seeds of an emerging “national consciousness” or a feeling of a separate collective identity of the Greek speaking orthodox Byzantine “Romans.” Cf. VAKALOPOULOS, A. 1974. Istoria tou neou Hellinismou. Vol. 12: 61–91. Salonica. and VAKALOPOULOS. 1966. I porcia tou genous.: 22–27. Ekdoseis ton Filon, Athens. 15 A voluntary exchange of populations between Greece and Bulgaria followed the 1919 Convention Respecting the Reciprocal Emigration of their racial minorities. The exchange involved 46,000 Greeks and 92,000 Bulgarians. See PENTZOPOULOS, D. 1962. The Balkan Exchange of Minorities and its Impact upon Greece.: 60. Mouton , Paris . 16 PALLIS. 1 : 150. 17 In 1920 the population of Greece was 5,016,889 (excluding the population of Imvros, Tenedos, and Eastern Thrace, which were ceded to Turkey following the Treaty of Lausanne–see the Greek Statistical Yearbooks). From this population should be subtracted a total of 463,460 persons (380,036 exchangeable Muslim emigrants; 49,511 Bulgarian emigrants; and 33,913 war casualties (1919–1923)—PALLIS1: 134). This leaves a net Greek population (excluding refugees) of 4,553,429. Refugee immigrants were estimated at 1,526,500 (1,500,000 from Turkey and Russia, 26,500 from Bulgaria—PALLIS1: 135). For the various estimates of the refugee population see PENTZOPOULOS: 96–100. The figures given by A.A. Pallis should be accepted ascorrect in view of the fact that his estimate of the 1926 population of Greece (6,090,018) falls very close to the findings of the 1928 census (6,204,684). 18 PALLIS. 1 : 151. 19 PENTZOPOULOS. 15 : 102. 20 For a somewhat detailed analysis by occupation, see PALLIS1: 151–154. See also Pentzopoulos15: 100–103. 21 See sources referred to in note 20 above. 22 PENTZOPOULOS 15 : 114–115. 23 PENTZOPOULOS 15 : 153. The description given in the text refers particularly to the case of Northern Greece, and especially Macedonia and Thrace (cf. L. SCHULTZE JENA. 1927. Mazedonien: 140–150. Jena Fischer. The impact of the land reform was of course much wider. 24 LAMPSIDOU, N. 1973.“Yparhous kai tora kai tha yparchoun os to 1977 astegoi prosfyges. Oikonomikos Tahydromos 47 (992-Apr 26): 90. 25 PENTZOPOULOS 15: 171–195. For early references to refugee radicalism see DEIMEZIS, A. 1927. Situation sociale créee en Grèce à la suite de l'échange des populations.: 73–76. Budry. Paris . 26 For a first detailed assessment see SIMONIDES, M.B. “L' économie rurale grecque et la crise de la guerre mondiale” and CHARITAKIS, G. “Le mouvement industriel en Grèce pendant les années 1915–1925” in Andréadès.1 There are more recent assessments in Pentzopoulos15: 143–167, and Oilonomikos Tahydromos, Vol. 47 (992-Apr 26, 1973). 27 A 1956 study (PHOTIADIS, J.D. “The Coffee House and its Role in the Village of Stavroupolis, Greece”) lists the following factors for class distinction in a Macedonian village: education, occupation, money, family name, approved achievement, community activities, origin (whether refugee or not) (emphasis added), area of residence. (Cited in SANDERS, I.T. 1962. Rainbow in the Rock—The People of Rural Greece.: 279. Harvard Univ. Press. Cambridge, Mass.) These correspond roughly with the findings of I. Lambiri-Dimaki in Megara. As she points out “the inhabitants tended to judge a Megarian's social position by the criteria of wealth, occupation, educational achievement, place of origin, residence and moral reputation. (The inhabitants, because of their intense localism, considered the immigrants to Megara from other parts of Greece or Asia Minor, and in particular the refugees settled in Neon Meli, as socially inferior)” (emphasis added). (LAMBIRI, I. 1965. Social Change in a Greek Country Town.: 49–50. Athens Center of Planning and Economic Research). See also the remarks of A. Bakalbasis quoted in PENTZOPOULOS15: 194. 28 Cf. PENTZOPOULOS 15: 159–212. Further examples of reserved adjustment can be cited ad infinitum. One of the most moving is the wish of late Ilias Venezis to be buried at Eftalou opposite his native land in Asia Minor. 29 The following is a case in point. “Little by little however a new mixed aristocracy was formed, based on interest and snobbism, composed of wealthy Mytilenians and newly arrived prefects, bank directors, higher officers etc.” (PANSELINOS5: 33). 30 PENTZOPOULOS15: 212–219. See also LOUSIDIS, O., M. ANASTASIADIS and D. LIATSOS, “He parousia ton prosfygon stin pnevmatiki zoi mas,”Oikonomikos Tahydromos, Vol 47 (992-Apr 26, 1973). 31 It was a whole nation that came to settle in Greece after the events of 1922. When one knows what Hellenism in Turkey was like before the catastrophe, with its two capitals,–Constantinople and Smyrna, with its secondary but flourishing centres–Andrianople, Rodosto, Samsoun, Trebizonde, Panderma, etc., with its rude peasants of Thrace and Pontus and its more refined population, half urban half rural, of Ionia, one is in a position to judge what an influence this immigration must have had on all social strata of the population of Greece.” (PALLIS, 1 : 151). “Among those brothers by race there is a complete identity of feeling, aspiration and national and religious traditions, but, having lived in different countries and districts, they differ in character, temperament and mentality, and show striking individuality.” (League of Nations, 1926. Greek Refugee Settlement II, Economic and Financial. Geneva, page 20 as quoted in PENTZOPOULOS15: 101–102). 32 TSAOUSSIS, D.G. 1974.“To koinoniko mas perivallon. Hroniko” 74.: 35–36. Ora, Athens. 33 According to the definitions adopted by the National Statistical Service of Greece populations living in settlements of more than 10,000 inhabitants are considered urban, in settlements of 2,000 to 9,999 inhabitants semi-urban, and in settlements of less than 1,999 inhabitants rural. Unless otherwise indicated the data presented in this section of the paper are based on the National Statistical Service's sample elaborations of the 1961 and the 1971 censuses. 34 948,057 as against 480,060. 35 1,787,595 inhabitants or 60% of the 1951 urban population. 36 651,655 inhabitants. 37 Dependent young: 0–14 years of age; dependent old 65 years of age and older active population 15–64 years of age. 38 Dependent old per 100 dependent young. 39 TSAOUSSIS, 2: 18–21. VALAORAS, V. 1973.“ O periorismos ton genniseon apeilei amesos tin anaptyxin” To Vima. Feb 18. 40 They are: Volos, Herakleion, Larissa, Ionnina, Agrinion, Chalkis, Alexandroupolis, Corinth, Tripolis, Kastoria. Their populations (1971 census) range from 88,100 (Volos) to 16,000 inhabitants. Kastoria. The only change of order was witnessed in the case of Ioannina and Agrinion. 41 The argument presented in the text is further substantiated by the fact that the greatest part of the interregional movement of Thrace is directed to Macedonia. (See TABLE 5, notes 1 and 2). 42 Cf. TSAOUSSIS 2 : 118–124. 43 The exceptionally high participation of females in the in-migrant group from the Aegean Islands to Athens (135 females per 100 males) suggests “the preference among Athenian families for young women from the Islands as domestic servants” (N.S.S.G. 1964. The Population Inflow to Greater Athens.: 23 Athens. It suggests also a certain virtual “control” of this particular “market”. Towards the end of the nineteenth century errand boys in Athens came from Stymphalia, shoeshines from Megalopolis, paperboys from Gortynia, all areas of the Peloponnesos, LAMBROU, M.P. 1890. Aporon paidon vios kai ethima. Athens). Masons in Athens came predominantly from the Aegean Islands, bakers from Epirus, civil servants and military from the Peloponnesos, etc. The role of regional fraternities and local guilds in the recruitment and organization of various crafts in modern Greece has still to be studied and analysed. 44 See note 41 above. Citing Literature Volume268, Issue1Regional Variation in Modern Greece and Cyprus: Tword a Perspective on the Ethnography of GreeceFebruary 1976Pages 429-441 ReferencesRelatedInformation