Marc-Adélard Tremblay (1922 - )

Anthropologue, retraité, Université Laval

“L'Anse des Lavallée:
An Acadian Community”.

Un chapitre publié dans l'ouvrage de Charles C. Hughes, Marc-Adélard Tremblay, Robert N. Rapoport et Alexander H. Leignton, People of Cove and Woodlot. Communities from the Viewpoint of Social Psychiatry. Vol. II. The Stirling County Study of Psychiatric Disorder & Sociocultural Environment, chapitre 3, pp. 93-164. New York : Basic Books, 1960, 574 pp.

Introduction

I.   POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS

II.  SUBSISTENCE PATTERNS

III. PATTERNS OF COMMUNITY LIFE

IV. PATTERNS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

V.  FAMILY LIFE PATTERNS

VI. SENTIMENTS

Nous sommes venus il y a trois cents ans, et nous sommes restés…

Nous avions apporté d'outre-mer nos prières et nos chansons : elles sont toujours les mêmes. Nous avions apporté dans nos poitrines le cœur des hommes de notre pays, vaillant et vif, aussi prompt à la pitié qu'au rire, le cœur le plus humain de tous les cœurs humains.... [Toutes] les choses que nous avons apportées avec nous, notre culte, notre langue, nos vertus et jusqu'à nos faiblesses deviennent des choses sacrées, intangibles, et qui devront demeurer jusqu'à la fin.

Autour de nous des étrangers sont venus, qu'il nous plaît d'appeler les barbares ; ils ont pris presque tout le pouvoir ; ils ont acquis presque tout l’argent.... Rien ne changera, parce que nous sommes un témoignage. De nous-mêmes et de nos destinées nous n'avons compris clairement que ce devoir-là : persister... nous maintenir... Et nous nous sommes maintenus, peut-être afin que dans plusieurs siècles encore le monde se tourne vers nous et dise : Ces gens sont d'une race qui ne sait pas mourir... Nous sommes un témoignage.

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Introduction

SEEN FROM ITS LANDWARD SIDE, the outlines of Lavallée's white houses stand sharply against the blue surface of St. Elizabeth's Bay, as they line the road for over a mile in the Municipality of St. Malo. Dominating the landscape from a hill on a cape nearby is St. Pierre, the parish church, with blunt, sturdy towers. Such features are typical of Acadian villages on the seaboard : a string of similar houses along the highway, near the sea, and a church tower standing not far away. Beyond these, however, there is something distinctive, although hard to define-perhaps it can be called an air of well-tended prosperity -which sets Lavallée off from many other Acadian villages.

The community contains almost 300 people living in some eighty households, and it is bounded with the bay on the south and the forest to the north. On the eastern side is another settlement, Le Brun's Cove ; the western edge is formed by a stream, the Petite Rivière, and by a portage, a patch of uninhabited land, grown wild in brush and woods. Still further to the west is Grande Marée, a smaller settlement.

Branching off from the main highway are several gravel roads, some leading northward to the forests of the interior and some southward to the shore. The backland roads, after a few hundred feet of houses and tended gardens, soon pass through fields grown into alders and small trees, and then to the woodlots which are part of Lavallée's most important economic resource.

The roads to the shore pass between marshy lowlands about one half mile in width which separate the houses from the Bay. Toward the center of the village, however, these lowlands are eclipsed by a thumb of the Bay that reaches to the highway, forming a cove. It is from this that the community takes the first part of its name, L'Anse des Lavallée. The places of business-stores, a hotel, sawmills, and post office-lie at the head of the cove. On the west side near a wharf are piled logs and cut timber belonging to one of the largest lumber companies in Stirling. On the other side of the cove is a cooperative sawmill and wood manufacturing plant making window frames and doors, the only one of its kind in the County.

The village has a history in which its Acadian residents take pride. One of the subdivisions, Minor Point, is considered the "cradle" of the Acadians today in St. Malo, and is revered by many others throughout the Atlantic Provinces and Eastern States, being a center of pilgrimage [95] on special occasions. As noted in Chapter I, some Acadians avoided the Dispersal of 1755 by flight. A group of about 120 are thought to have come from Port Royal and landed on what is now Minor Point. They spent the entire winter there and suffered greatly from exposure, malnutrition, and disease. Most of them died and were buried on the Point, and a chapel has since been erected in their memory. The survivors apparently managed better the second year and their number may have been augmented by others who had been hiding in the woods. At any rate, they were there to meet the larger group of Acadians who came to Stirling County in 1768 (see Chapter I, pp. 45-46).

Thus Lavallée's history as a community stretches back almost 200 years. The village has come through both severe pioneering hard [96] ships, and prosperous periods of commerce and lumbering to modern days of change and uncertainty in which the outside world forces itself increasingly upon this Acadian minority.

I. POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS

The age and sex distribution of Lavallée shows some features which have important implications for community life. As seen in Figure 3, there are a few more females than males (152 total compared to 144), particularly in the younger age grades. The most noticeable feature of the distribution, however, is in the category from twenty to twenty-nine years, where there are almost twice as many females as males.

Such a distribution reflects, for one thing, heavy emigration among young men from modern Lavall6e. In fact the size of both the twenty to twenty‑nine age class and the forty to forty-nine age class is associated with waves of emigration in the 1940-1950 and 1920-1930 decades.

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The patterns of migration from Lavallée are similar to those of most Acadian communities on the shoreline of St. Malo. As one might expect, emigration by youth is viewed in various ways by local leaders as well as by the relatives left behind. Some try to keep the young at home ; others feel that if they are to obtain suitable work and "better themselves" the young must migrate to urban centers or at least leave Stirling County. As a rule, people learn about job possibilities through family ties or friends who have already moved. It is rare for a person to strike out on his own to look for work in an area in which he has no previously established contacts. Another important factor bearing on migration is that young people nowadays receive more education than formerly and so come to believe they must move elsewhere to find opportunities commensurate with their training. This is part of a general rise in expectations with regard to standards of living.

Opinion even among the young is not, however, all oriented in one direction. Both those who go and those who stay or return have for the most part a strong attachment to their place of origin. As one person expressed it : "The Baie [the whole Acadian Shore] is the best place in the world to live, as long as one has a way to make a decent living."

The Acadians who return often express a desire to help other Acadians secure an advantageous education, and are sometimes active participants in the Revival. The feelings about the "Baie" are reflected in the fact that most migrants from Lavallée are single persons, both men and women ; there has been as yet no wholesale emigration of families. Against a background of comparative security in Lavallée with non-mortgaged ownership of house, assistance of relatives and friends when necessary, production of some food, low taxes, and an assurance of at least a modest cash income from woodlots or other sources-the uprooting of an entire family for a move to a city does not appear inviting to most. This may change with the development of industrial projects in the Atlantic region, especially if these call for skilled or semiskilled workers. Already one or two families have made a permanent move for such jobs, a thing unknown in the past.

In former times there was considerable difference in the migration of men and women. Twenty-five years ago, for instance, most girls did not leave to go looking for work, although they could obtain jobs locally as schoolteachers, maids, or housekeepers. Today women seek employment outside Lavallée, and with the rise in educational level [98] they are as well prepared as the men in some fields, particularly in white-collar occupations. Although such wider opportunities have had effects on the woman's place in the home and community, it is important to note that most women in Lavallée still conceive their fundamental role to be that of wife and mother. "Career girl" goals have as yet no influence in this community.

Also relevant to the migration patterns of Lavallée is a change in the form of land inheritance. In the past, land was divided by a father equally among all the male heirs. As a result, the portions threatened to become so small in time as to have very little value. Today, in order to obviate such a disaster, family property passes to only one heir who is expected to carry on the traditional occupation of the family, and this heir is not necessarily the eldest.

Questions concerning migration both of household heads and of their families were included in the FLS. In terms of indices constructed from these items, the bulk of Lavallée heads of households may be characterized as long-term, fairly stable residents of the community.

We assessed this by means of a "residence" index, in which we estimated the relative proportion of the respondent's life spent in the community of present residence. For a description of the building of this index, see Appendix B, p. 491. The distributions for Lavallée can be seen in Table III-1.

As can be seen, over half (54 per cent) of Lavallée heads of households have been in the community at least three fifths of their lifetime, and altogether 75 per cent have been in Lavallée for at least two fifths of their lives.

A second measure is a "recency" index, which assesses the length [99] of the respondent's most recent stay in the community, disregarding moves he might have made earlier.

Again we find that most of the population of household heads (62 per cent) tend to have been in Lavallée continuously for at least the last ten years, quite aside from where they may have spent other portions of their lives.

Turning to another demographic feature, marital status, about one third of the adults (those over twenty years) are unmarried. Some are advanced in years, being widowed or lifelong bachelors and spinsters ; but most of them are young. Perhaps indicative of a general trend toward later weddings than formerly (and later than other rural parts of Canada) is the fact that in the age class twenty to twenty‑nine years, twenty-one out of a total of thirty-one (65 per cent) are unmarried. Among these there are more males than females.

Of the seventy-eight households in Lavallée examined intensively by means of the Household Inventory (see Appendix F), the overwhelming proportion had a male as the chief of the household unit, seventy-one out of seventy-eight households, or 91 per cent. [1] This pattern somewhat contrasts with that in the Depressed Areas, as will be discussed in Chapter V. By "chief" we mean economic provider and (at least nominally) decision-maker. In Lavallée this position is especially reinforced by sentiments concerning proper male and female roles.

Another point to note is that the women tend to be more educated [100] than the men. This holds for all adult age classes, despite the fact that the range is greater for men, inasmuch as more of them have been to college. Almost 15 per cent of the male heads of households have had some university training, compared to 4 per cent of male household heads for the County as a whole. Although no women have been to a university, 88 per cent of them have completed from eight to twelve grades. The modal educational attainment of household heads, both male and female, based on the FLS, is the category eight to ten years. Data from the Household Inventory place the average grade of attainment for women in Lavallée at 9.0, while that for men is 7.5. This level of attainment is higher than that for other Acadian communities. Almost one fourth of the wives in Lavallée were schoolteachers before marriage (which was of course at a time when requirements for certification were less stringent than now) and their influence in encouraging education in the community has been strong.

The figures reflect only partially the educational attainments of Lavallée people, since an unknown proportion of the college graduates (e.g., priests, doctors, and other professionals) never returned as residents to the community after college and higher training.

The religious and ethnic characteristics of Lavallée were noted in Chapter II, where criteria and indices for selection of the community as a relatively integrated area were presented. It will be recalled that all people in the village are at least nominally Roman Catholics, most of them devoutly so, and that over 90 per cent are of "pure" Acadian ancestry.

II. SUBSISTENCE PATTERNS

Lumber has always been the most important source of cash in Laval1ée, the means by which goods and services are purchased and taxes paid. For those who own lots, lumber also provides a "bank account", a combination of investment and savings for use in times of adversity. Approximately 25 per cent of the family heads own large woodlots, and this in some ways marks these people off as a special economic class. The rest, however, still have lumbering as the most important single economic resource; for many own small woodlots, or work for wages on someone else's land.

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Other economic activities contribute only in an ancillary manner. Farming, for instance, while it tends to be secondary in most of the County, is even less important in Lavallée. About twenty households grow their own vegetables, and a few keep cows, a pig, and some chickens. But even to these people such work is only part time, done after hours in lumbering or wage‑labor in some other job.

Although some Acadian communities fish the waters of St. Elizabeth's Bay, Lavallée does so only to a very small degree. Geographic features may play a part in the lack of this activity, since Lavallée's long tidal flats do not allow an easy landing of boats at low water. For pleasure, on the other hand, people dig clams during the spring tides at nearby Grande Marée, where "grosses coques" (quahogs) are found. These unusually large clams are considered a delicacy and often are used in an Acadian dish made of grated potatoes strained of their water content, pâté à la râpure.

Hunting is another subsistence activity in which the pleasure of doing it is the main feature. As in all St. Malo communities, deer hunting in the fall is very popular among men. Since the woods are within everyone's reach, the hunters come from all parts of the economic scale. Most Lavallée men go deer hunting at least once a year and some people go as often as twice or three times a week during the open season. Wealthy hunters may organize camping parties with guides and go inland to the more inaccessible woods and barrens. Whether or not a trip is marked with successful kills, there usually is celebration and good times, in some cases with heavy drinking. This latter aspect of the deer season is perhaps in the process of becoming as important as the hunting itself.

The size and quality of the original timber holdings of the settlers, and the particular historical circumstances which facilitated maintaining these in local hands, lie behind Lavallée's relative prosperity and security today. In the 1880's, a number of English lumber corporations began cutting in St. Malo. From small and large woodland owners they bought all the lots they could get, and moved up toward Lavallée from the western (most distant) end of the Municipality. Because lumbering at the time was subject to the demands of the spring river drive, there was concentration on the lands immediately surrounding river systems. The companies jumped from river to river in their march through the municipality. To the west of Lavallée, lots were successsively [102] cut to the ground as the woodlands were bought from the Acadians who were willing to sell at the time (in large measure due to the depression that occurred during the latter part of the nineteenth century). According to older informants, the companies ruined and exhausted much of the finest timber land in this part of the Province.

But the corporations' ambition to cut all of St. Malo's woodland never materialized, for one company after another went bankrupt. The last wave of woodlot purchase faltered just at the neighboring village of Grande Mar&, and Lavallée was spared. One lumber dealer told us :

Our prosperity is a historical accident. Lumber companies never reached our community. Lavallée Acadians cannot explain their prosperity by the foresight of the ancestors. Our fathers never sold their land because they were never offered a deal. That was our luck.

Whatever may have been the case of foresight at the time, in the last two or three decades woodlot owners have become sensitized to the need for conservation in order to have a sustained forest yield. Consequently, the community's main resource is now cut in such a manner as to keep it productive. Thus Lavallée's current circumstances do, we think, have a component of both foresight and care.

The outstanding characteristic of the businesses in the community is their familistic nature. Of the dozen or so, nine are organized along family lines. In the sawmilling industry alone, there are three family-owned and family-staffed corporations. One sawmill is in the hands of two brothers and three first cousins ; another is owned by four first cousins ; and the third is owned and managed by two brothers and a cousin. Another sawmill, although not in the same sense a family business, is a partnership of affinal relatives, two brothers-in-law.

The most important lumber company (having woodlots of its own, a general store, and a lumber dealing business, though no sawmill) is owned by two brothers and a first cousin. A father and son jointly own a garage ; two brothers are the proprietors of a dry cleaning concern ; a fishing boat (this was a short-[term business venture) is owned by two cousins ; and, finally, the village's tourist cabins belong to a mother and her three sons.

In general, one can say that if a business concern embodies Partners, they are relatives. Moreover, there are only a few enterprises which [103] are not organized on a partnership pattern and these tend, except for the cooperative, to be minor. One exception to this is a fish plant which, although located at nearby Le Brun's Cove, is owned by a Lavallée resident. Kinship bonds, therefore, extend far beyond the social activities of the family and penetrate the economic structure of the community.

Reflections in economics of primary group feeling other than kinship are found in a Credit Union which the community has had for a number of years, organized on a parochial basis. In 1948, when a local sawmill closed, the Credit Union voted to buy the business and operate it on a cooperative basis. Although the vote by the directors of the Union was unanimous and the Cooperative was welcomed by wageworkers and smaller woodlot owners, it was opposed by some of the families in control of the sawmills and lumber companies. Despite this, the Cooperative survived and became successful, greatly aided by the parish priest.

Today, the smaller woodlot owners continue to support it strongly, because they are able to get a relatively larger share of the proceeds from the sale of their logs. The Union has two departments, one mainly concerned with making boxes for the fish plants, and the other with producing windows, doors, staircases, and similar items needed for house construction. The objectives of the organization have been expressed by one of its presidents :

The main goal of the Co-op is not to make profits, but to provide job opportunities for families of the parish and to improve standards of living, in this way counteracting the reasons for migration to industrial centers. The Co-op is thinking of production. This would certainly stabilize the industry and may insure its survival.

Having sketched this background of economic activity, we can now turn to the individual worker. But to draw the occupational profile of Lavallée requires some preparatory comment. As in the County as a whole, occupational versatility is an important feature, and figures with regard to "main" occupation must be evaluated against secondary and tertiary jobs and against other contributions to the total subsistence, such as part‑time farming. With this in mind the occupational distribution for "main" job of male household heads (that which contributed most money for the five years preceding the FLS in 1952) is presented in Table III-3.2 [2].

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Further details of the above categories will be found in Appendix B, pp. 452-454. In regard to the above and the following index, the "household head" referred to is in all cases the "main earner" in the household, even though the respondent may actually have been the female household head under the rules of alternate sampling by which the questionnaire was administered. In Table III-3 we may note that over two fifths of such main earner household heads in Lavallée are found in the first category, "owner and salaried," comprised mostly of large woodlot owners who employ workers to cut for them.

The rest of the "owner and salaried" category is taken up with entrepreneurs and people in various managerial and white‑collar capacities. The smaller woodlot owners are mostly in the category of "own account in forestry," while a few occur in wage jobs of various types, from which they receive the bulk of their steady cash income.

Almost one half of the household heads in Lavallée have secondary occupations. [3] The majority of these people are in the semiskilled, blue-collar group and it is rather unusual for a person in the owner and salaried category to have a second job of any importance. All in all, the modal occupational position is entrepreneurial or salaried and for the most part it involves large or small woodlot owners who are primarily dependent upon the cutting and selling of logs. The rest [105] of the household heads take a variety of jobs to fill out their income.

In Lavallée today-as in the past-it is considered commendable to master a number of skills. In former times, when there was more or less regularly a shift of occupation with the seasons, this was more easily achieved then now. Some kinds of positions, moreover, such as the professional, the proprietor or the manager, do not involve any major change in activity with the cycles of the year, being removed from such a primary relationship to nature. Wageworkers, on the other hand, are still subject to seasonal shifts and hence they need supplementary work at various times during the year. Many independent farmer-lumbermen also work for wages when they have a chance, such as on road repairs or construction jobs. Employees in the Cooperative and other sawmills likewise work there only a part of the year. For them winter is the season of being laid off, and for about four months most draw unemployment compensation.

Survey data further illuminate this picture. Seventy-four per cent of the main earners in the household were employed continuously over the twelve-month period preceding the survey ; and among the unemployed, very few were idle for as long as six months (see Table  III-4).

It should be recognized that in Table III-4 "earned income" does not include savings ; hence, it is possible for a man to be without work but still have money available, which does happen in Lavallée. For the County as a whole, it will be recalled, the relative proportion of household heads employed during the year preceding the survey was 68 per cent ; the proportion who were unemployed for seven months [106] or more was 6 per cent. The proportion employed in Lavallée is therefore slightly higher than the County averages.

A point of interest emerges when occupational distribution is considered in relation to age. We find that there is a tendency for older people to be in lumbering (an extractive industry), whereas younger people tend to be in the service, or in the unskilled, wage-labor group. This seems indicative of the larger process of social and cultural change-the young prefer to work for wages, sometimes away from the community, rather than depend upon lumber and subsistence farming at home. Lavallée, like other small rural communities in Stirling, was organized around the extractive industries, but today it seems to be shifting-despite its fundamental base in lumber-to a manufacturing and service type of economy and occupational pattern. In addition to sheer preference on the part of the young men for a different type of work, this pattern might be attributable to greater efficiency, thus reducing labor needs, in the extractive processes themselves.

As we noted in our discussion of the selection of Focus Areas (see pp. 66, 71, 72), Lavallée is among the wealthiest communities in the County, and is, undoubtedly, the richest along the Acadian shore. The distribution of wealth, however, is uneven, with about half a dozen nuclear families having assets that may run to $100,000 each, and it is this which raises the over-all community average. The other nuclear families, however, must not be considered as isolated and unaffected by this wealth. On the contrary, due to the extended kinship system and the accompanying sentiments of obligation, economic security is spread widely throughout the community.

The wealthy families aside, most workers in the village have, according to key informants, an income that is about average for the County-from $2500 to $3000. This figure may seem low by urban standards, but it is actually higher than might first appear, if one considers it in the Lavallée context. The security, especially in sudden emergency, that is provided by the kinship system has already been mentioned. To this should be added low taxes, mortgage-free houses (most of which are large-the average number of rooms is eight-and well kept), the materials and skills to do one's own maintenance, the opportunity to grow a considerable part of one's own food, the chance to cut one's own wood for heating, and numerous other items which are in effect hidden income or at least would have to be regarded as such if a comparison were to be made with urban salaries.

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Note : In the above table (and others of this type) a “ + ” indicates that the given characteristic is present and a “ -  ” means that it is absent. In the case of a continuous quality, such as relative affluence of furnishings, “ + ”  and “ -  ” indicate a rating, respectively, of above and below a particular cutting point with respect to the item. See Appendix B, pp. 461-462.

A reflection of Lavallée's advantaged economic position can be seen in the main types of material possessions. A composite scale made of various ratings of house type and condition, and the presence or absence of certain appliances and conveniences, points up its high standing (see Table III-5). For a discussion of the building of this scale, see Appendix B, p. 460 ff. As noted before, this scale entered as one component [108] in the "Index of Material Style of Life" mentioned in Chapter 1.

Noting some of the items in Table III-5, we find that about one quarter of the homes in Lavallée have good quality, well cared for furnishings ; furnace heating ; a refrigerator ; flush toilet facilities ; two or more rooms per person ; a washing machine or laundry service ; a large, well cared for house and grounds ; and electricity. As in a scale of this type, the proportion of people having all the items of material goods mentioned decreases as the total number of items itself increases. Thus, we find at the other end of the scale, 97 per cent of the Lavallée houses are rated favorably on house-type and quality, and, in addition, have electricity. All houses have at least electricity. Both to the person driving through and to the long-term resident, Lavallée's outward appearance is indeed one of prosperity.

Comparing the averages for the County as a whole (see Appendix B, Table B-9), only 5 per cent of the FLS respondents have all the items named, in contrast to the 23 per cent for Lavallée ; and only 75 per cent have homes rated as large, spacious, and well cared for, with electricity and adequate laundry facilities, compared to Lavallée's 97 per cent ; 96 per cent have electricity, where Lavallée has 100 per cent. For the County as a whole, the modal collection of material possessions according to this scale is that of having electricity ; an "average" or better rating on the quality of house-type and outbuildings ; a washing machine or laundry service ; and two or more rooms per person. Lavallée's. modal pattern is that of having all eight of the material features composing the scale.

Two other indicators which bear on the economic position of Lavallée are ownership of automobiles and the carrying of life insurance. Thirty-three per cent of the household heads in Lavallée both own automobiles (65 per cent owning a 1950 model or better) and carry life insurance. Thirty-eight per cent have one or the other of these financial assets ; and only 29 per cent have neither. This compares to 21 per cent in the County as a whole having both ; 34 per cent having either ; and almost half, 45 per cent, having neither.

All these factors-job stability and relatively steady income, standard of living, material possessions‑bespeak the same qualities in Lavallée : relative economic prosperity and security.

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III. PATTERNS OF COMMUNITY LIFE

One of the strongest impressions we derived is that everyone in Lavallée feels he can count on relatives and neighbors to help in any emergency and that he will in turn go to great lengths to give such a service. There is, in short, marked community sentiment, and it exists not only in words but also, as we discovered, in action.

In the FLS survey one question asked what people thought would happen if their house burned down-could they expect help from their whole community ; only from neighbors and immediate family ; or from no one else except themselves ? Eighty-one per cent of the household heads in Lavallée said they thought the entire community would pitch in to help. Several years after the survey a house did burn down and the community did in fact contribute extensive assistance in one way or another, some helping to construct a new house, and some collecting money to aid the family in re-establishing itself.

To the same survey question, 54 per cent in the County as a whole, 25 per cent in Fairhaven, and 31 per cent in the Depressed Areas answered that they thought the whole community would help. Thus, relatively more people in both the County and the other Focus Areas thought they would have to rely on themselves in such an emergency. There were, however, no accidents of a nature to test these expectations in the other Focus Areas.

Visiting patterns constitute another expression of community sentiment. It is the custom to enter a house through the kitchen door without knocking. Women may go up the road during the day to a relative's or friend's house for chatting, discussing babies, food, or people ; and among the men, many have jobs which allow them to drop in to the general store or the post office and spend time discussing lumber prices, the hunting season, politics, and, of course, personal events and community life. Sometimes a family as a group will visit another family in the evening, either for some form of recreation such as a game of cards, or just for conversation. At the time of the field study, television had not yet come into the village.

There are some differences in visiting patterns according to economic status. The well-to-do families tend to keep more to themselves ; there appears, in fact, to be a general restriction in relationships by these families and less of the informal visiting, even between relatives with approximately the same economic resources. Many seem too preoccupied [110] with business problems. Others tend to do their social visiting mainly with people of the same general socioeconomic level in other communities along the shore.

Nevertheless, a neighbor is considered to be a person whom one lives near and visits and also a person from whom one expects immediate and unstinting help in the small as well as the larger needs of life. For instance, if only one house out of several in a neighborhood has a telephone, all people living nearby will feel free to make and receive calls there. Further, in case of trouble, a neighbor is usually the first to be asked, and he would feel slighted and annoyed if he were not.

The person who does not share in the life of his neighborhood and does not mingle socially with those living nearby is considered deviant, the one whose actions are to be explained. When such isolation does take place, moreover, it is generally because an individual is being deliberately ostracized for having transgressed some strongly held value-sentiment. But such treatment occurs rarely and only as a response to extreme acts, such as marrying outside the Church and then bringing the spouse to live in the community.

When one sees families visiting each other in the evening, one pattern is apparent which symbolizes much of the rest of community life. This is the division between men’s and women's roles. Although there has been some change in recent years-especially among the women from the more well-to-do and better educated families-the world of men and the world of women remain markedly different. As is often seen elsewhere, women usually gather together in one corner of the room, discussing matters that are of primary interest to them, while the men do the same thing in another part of the room. In Lavallée, however, there are strong sentiments in support of this behavior based on the religious philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church, with its emphasis upon the mother and the home as transmitting the faith, and upon the man as provider.

Of the several factors entering into neighborhood and community cohesion, ethnic homogeneity is undoubtedly one of the most important. This has both its historical roots and its modem aspects. As noted earlier, Lavallée includes what is considered the original settling place for Acadians in the County. A monument to the memory of the first settlers stands at the edge of the village, serving as a reminder of their history as a "martyred people." The precipitates of this history [111] exist today in the general culture of the community, with its language, religion, family sentiments, and numerous minor-but characteristic-traits such as the pâté à la râpure. Everybody except one "war bride" who came into the village upon marriage speaks the Acadian dialect. Nearly all speak English also, with varying degrees of fluency. French as a written language, however, is much less widely used, and this applies not only in Lavallée but also in St. Malo as a whole.

A mark of ethnic ingroup feeling in Lavallée is the fact that some of the important leaders in the Acadian Revival movement of St. Malo are residents of this community. The Revival (see pp. 40-41), is directed at the re-establishing of Acadian influence over the entire Maritime region through population spread, increased attention to the background of Acadian history and culture, use of oral and written French, growth of a political climate favorable to the Acadians, and their increased importance in the church hierarchy. Most of the heads of the more influential families strongly support this movement, although some of the business leaders fear that too much emphasis on Acadian separateness may alienate their English business contacts. Such hesitancy is not voiced much in public.

Some of the sentiments bearing on the Acadian Revival are illustrated in certain of the survey indices. Table III-6 reports on a scale of in-group commitment among the Acadians of Lavallée. For dis-

Key to columns :

1 : has reservations about mixing socially with the English.
2 : would censure or try to persuade back a friend who left the church.
3 : would object strongly to a child marrying a non-Catholic.
4 : married to a Catholic.

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cussion of this index, see Appendix B, p. 473 ff., especially Tables B-20 and B-21.

All household heads in the survey of Lavallée are married to Roman Catholics and would object strongly to one of their children marrying a non-Catholic. Seventy per cent have these characteristics and, in addition, would censure a friend who left the church and try to reconvert him. Thirty-six per cent have all the above plus reservations about mixing socially with the English.

For associated Acadians in St. Malo, excluding Lavallée, the corresponding figures are 90 per cent and 31 per cent. This suggests that Lavallée has some tendency to emphasize these sentiments a little more than most Acadians do.

Despite the marked ethnic cohesion in Lavallée and pervasive sentiments supporting the idea of equality among all Acadians, there is, as already indicated, a division into social "prestige" segments more or less roughly defined according to a number of criteria. These segments are recognized by both the "high" and the "low" in the community, and their existence, though muted and even openly denied, is a social reality.

In this emerging "class system" of Lavallée, wealth and education weigh heavily in making for differentiation. But "respectability" and religiousness are qualifying criteria, and they enter the picture at crucially important points. The poor and uneducated, for instance, even though they may be highly religious and respectable, do not have upper status in the village, although they can have the middle range of prestige. Membership in the uppermost levels is given to the wealthy or highly educated who are also of irreproachable morals (at least publicly). Members of what may be roughly defined as "middle" levels are those "respectable" people with average or below average economic standing and educational achievement. This group forms the greatest bulk of the population, with fifty out of seventy-eight families being considered as belonging to it. The lowest (and smallest) group of people consists in those who are for the most part poor and "have a dark spot in their history," either because they have not fulfilled all their religious obligations or because they have committed minor offenses which are common knowledge (e.g., theft, sexual promiscuity, excessive drinking). They are, in fact, a "class of people" whom the rest of the Lavallée residents would like to see move out of the community.

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It should be emphasized again that the system of social differentiation in Lavallée is neither crystallized nor well defined and hence cannot be properly compared with most of the class systems that have been developed by social scientists. [4] Nevertheless, against the background of traditional Acadian sentiments, by which the model for prestige ranking might be said to be the "exalted common man," this is something new and is one of the several features marking Lavallée off from the rest of St. Malo. It is as if, malgré eux-mêmes, they have formed a system of social differentiation based on wealth, education, and general overt adherence to their value‑sentiments.

As might be expected, if we contrast a rough "upper" and "lower" group according to occupation, most families of the higher level cluster in the proprietorial and managerial occupations, and most families of the lower category are in unskilled activities. Families of the middle group, however, spread themselves over the whole occupational range.

Some of the criteria of status position may now be illustrated in more concrete terms. If a family "gives" a son to the priesthood, this will bring extremely high prestige, no matter what its condition with regard to other criteria. But educational attainment (which requires a greater interest in community affairs, according to sentiments held by Lavallée people) and personally-achieved material wealth are also extremely important. Further, if wealth or education has been gained by an individual, some of the consequent prestige extends to other family members, as if to acknowledge that his success has been possible only through collective encouragement and support. Thus, through financial sacrifices and denials, a family might send a child to college and if he "turned out well" his higher status would be shared by those who took an active part in helping him. We often noted an expression of this "disseminated" prestige when a member of the community was being introduced. The point of reference was always in terms of kinship, but among the kin the person selected for reference was always one with high prestige : "This is Father X's brother. " "This is the father of Dr. Y." Sometimes the name of the individual would be omitted entirely in such introductions and he would be made known to the outsider only by his distinguished relative.

There is virtually no social interaction between the families of the upper prestige level and those of the lowest. As mentioned earlier, the behavior of the upper group includes less visiting with other people in the community and more association with high status persons outside. [114] The expensive quality of their entertainment and leisure activities fosters exclusion. Aside from this, however, people of the middle levels seem able to gain admittance only through the sponsorship of someone who is already a member, and there is a certain note of envy and jealousy. It seems evident that the sentiments of social equality are in some ways flouted by the expensive cars, travel, summer cottages, parties, and display which the upper people can afford.

Drinking as a form of leisure activity is widespread among both the highest and the lowest groups, with the middle being relatively temperate. The latter tend to use liquor only on special occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, and holidays. Family heads of the lowest prestige group drink more often than do the richer people, but less frequently in their homes, and so they are more often seen drunk in public. The latter is very unusual for a person of the upper level. Despite this use of alcohol, heavy drinking-lots of it, regularly-is generally condemned regardless of prestige position. It is especially criticized in cases where it interferes with work, child rearing, or family life. In extreme cases there may be intervention through organized action by relatives, neighbors, a priest, or doctor.

People in Lavallée as a whole now spend much more time in recreation than they did in the past when the hardships of making a living gave little opportunity for leisure. Moreover, not much distinction was made formerly between leisure, work, and other aspects of life, since many enjoyed activities centered in the family and church and there was pleasure in the shifts of occupation that came as part of the annual cycle. The change, for instance, from the spring river drive of logs to summer farming was one such shift. Leisure as a form of "relaxation" per se, however, was an alien idea-one without justification. Many of the older people in the community have never in their lives had a vacation.

For the younger people, however, leisure and vacation have considerable meaning, and this is part of the larger picture of socio-cultural change. The trend has been away from family-centered and work-connected recreation toward commercialized entertainment. A young informant speaks in this way about changes he has experienced :

Some fifteen years ago, there were a number of young people in the community and we used to get together every week. We used to go to each other's home, play cards, sing songs, and dance. In [115] those days there were only a few cars around, and there were movies once or twice a year. We used to spend a lot of time at home, rather than traveling around or going to a movie.

The development of transportation has been much involved in the shift. The paved highway, the automobile, and particularly a shorter working day and week have made possible shopping in more urban centers such as Plymouth, Bristol, or even the Provincial capital ; roller skating at Grande Rivière ; playing pool and bowling at St. Pierre ; or vacationing at a tourist resort. With the exception of the last, none of these activities is carried out on a family basis.

As with forms of recreation so also with voluntary associations in Lavallée : there has been a growth in importance of institutions which extend beyond the boundaries of the community and are not family centered. There are no formal associations limited in membership to Lavallée people only, and participation in parochial, Municipal, County, and Provincial organizations is high-probably higher than in any other village along the Acadian shore. Lavallée has produced a large number of leaders active in such associations as the Board of Trade, the Association for the Education of Acadians, the Cooperative Movement, and the Liberal Association of St. Malo. Some 67 per cent of the family heads belong to at least one formal association besides the church, and 10 per cent belong to six or more. On the average, they belong to two associations.

As one might expect from knowledge of other areas, there are occupational and sexual differences in the patterns of membership. Those who do not participate in formal associations are found mainly among the unskilled and the retired, while the active joiners are among the professionals, businessmen, and people in other white-collar categories. Women more than the men join religious and educational associations, and men participate more in the economic, political, and professional groups. Both sexes are found in the social-recreational associations, though men predominate.

In the business field, there are two parish-wide and one municipality-wide associations which draw members from Lavallée. Two of these, the St. Pierre Credit Union (having about thirty-five to forty families from Lavallée as members) and the Lavallée cooperative, have already been discussed. The municipality-wide organization is the St. Malo Board of Trade, which has about fifteen Lavallée families represented. [116] its aim is to bring new industries into the region, promote tourism, stabilize employment, and achieve generally higher levels of living.

There are no unions in the community, and a movement in this direction has been strongly opposed by Lavallée business leaders. We may note also that there are no formal associations operating exclusively with a recreational aim in the community, although two outside associations of this type draw some men from Lavallée. These are the Latourelle Men's Club, serving the purpose of maintaining a bar ; and the Bristol Town Curling Club, which has a similar facility although its main purpose is, of course, recreation. The meaning of these two clubs will be evident when it is understood that the Province on the whole is "dry" and that no public bars or cocktail lounges are allowed in Stirling County.

Associations linked with formal education flourish in St. Malo and Lavallée residents play key roles in them. The community has its own branch of the Home and School Association (corresponding to the Parent Teachers Association in the United States), has members in the Association of Acadian Teachers and in the Association for the Education of Acadians. The latter association was organized recently in the Province and is, undoubtedly, the most important of all educational groups in St. Malo. It has multiple aims, among which are the increasing of levels of education, promoting "Acadian rights" in the school system and in the legislative procedures of the Province, opposing influences which they feel weaken Acadian consciousness of themselves, and promoting greater participation in the affairs and endeavors of other French groups in the nation. Six people from Lavallée belong to this association, and most of them hold leadership positions. Another association connected with education is composed of alumni of the Acadian college of St. Jean-Eudes, located in the parish next to Lavallée. This group was formed some fifty years ago and the members are spread throughout the Canadian Provinces and the eastern United States. The aims are similar to those of alumni associations everywhere : support of the alma mater and enhancement of its prestige.

Another aspect of the propensity for Lavallée people to join associations can be seen in political activity. Recently (1951), under the leadership of two community members, a group in the Municipality was revived to help guide and direct policies of one of the political parties of the Province. We may note that the member of the Municipal [117] Council representing the district of which Lavallée is a part comes from that community. The war veterans' organization, Canadian Legion, has four members in Lavallée.

In addition to membership in secular associations, the people of Lavallée are of course active supporters of church-sponsored groups. There are, for instance, three parish-wide, church-centered associations with representation in the village. These consist in the Holy Name Society, the Catholic Women's League, and the Choir. The first two are the most important religious associations in the parish. Lavallée people play leading roles in these and have greater participation than do people in Le Brun's Cove, St. Pierre, Frontière, and Philip's Point  -communities which, with Lavallée, form the St. Pierre Parish.

The Holy Name Society, an association for men, was established in the spring of 1952. Its purpose is to promote frequent confessions and communions among the laity, each member pledging himself to receive communion at least once a month. It has as members about twenty household heads. Although the members are drawn from all classes and age levels, middle class and older men predominate. At first the society did not receive full support from the Lavallée residents because of its identification with Irish clergy and because of a dispute in progress at the time between the Irish and the Acadians. The society finally received active backing when the parish priest strongly urged its support.

The Catholic Women's League, to which some thirty Lavallée women belong, is an organization for married women (overlapping in great measure with the Lavallée membership in the Home and School Association). A few years before our study it was established in the St. Pierre Parish to replace another association, the Women's Institute. The latter group, with more secular aims and no affiliation with the church, was disappearing, and the Catholic Women's League stepped in. Members are expected to take an active part in preparations for the annual church fair, raise funds for parochial organizations, participate in the Home and School Association, visit the sick in the community, help the poor, and recite special prayers for them. The association meets regularly once a month.

The choir is responsible for singing at religious services (high mass, funerals, vespers, weddings, special services) and is strongly supported in Lavallée. At least ten of its approximately twenty members come from the village. It is of interest that there are no religious associations [118] specifically for unmarried boys or girls. Some, however, sing in the choir.

Education in Lavallée is highly valued, as can be seen in the membership of associations formed to promote educational facilities. Several historical factors would appear to be important in the development of this characteristic. One of these has to do with experience of the residents when they worked in L'Anse in a shipyard owned by an English family during the 1860's and 1870's. The unskilled Acadian laborers who saw clerks and office workers receiving higher wages became impressed with the value of education at that time and strongly encouraged their children to acquire it. This interest in schooling helped to contribute to the creation of the Acadian college of St. Jean-Eudes in Latourelle during the last decade of the nineteenth century. The college, the work of a missionary order, was built a few miles from Lavallée and dedicated to the memory of one of the great missionary priests of eastern Canada who had in the early nineteenth century pioneered the development of education among the Acadians.

Because the college is set up on the French-Canadian model of a "cours classique," the curriculum corresponds not only to the four college years in the United States but also to teaching from grade seven upwards. Some Lavallée residents have attended the college for a few years without doing what would be considered college work in English-speaking North America, yet this exposure to the atmosphere and perspectives of higher education is considered to fit them for positions of leadership. They are expected to take a prominent part in activities of the community and parish because it is said, "they are educated."

Learning, then, plays an important part in the definition and exercise of leadership in the community. But other factors are also important in selecting a man for leadership. General knowledge and experience ; wealth ; enthusiasm for the task ; vigor or evidence of arduous work toward goals of the group will also help define a person for the role. Probably the most consistent basis for leadership is education and experience in a particularly valued activity. Sheer economic power does not, of itself, seem to qualify a person. There is no exclusive leadership "stratum" in the community, and people from the middle as well as from the uppermost level have the opportunity to be leaders in one domain or another.

As noted earlier, there are no associations limited exclusively to Lavallée-an important fact in itself bearing on the wider group sentiments [119] of the Acadians-but the residents provide most of the leadership for associations of the parish as a whole, such as the Credit Union, the Cooperative, the Catholic Women's League, the Home and School Association, and the Holy Name Society. In 1952, for example, the presidents and most other officers of these associations were from Lavallée. Indeed, the only important person in these groups who came from outside the community was the parish priest.

With the mention of the priest, we come to an institution which, by its very nature, provides overarching leadership and guidance that are very effective in channeling socio-cultural processes in the community. The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and Acadian tradition give the parish priest authority in widely defined religious aspects of life, with effective sanctions to ensure conformity. As one Acadian said to us : "When Father Lebrun is in the pulpit, people listen to him earnestly no matter if what he says is pleasing or displeasing. He has the duty and the authority to preach, and people have to listen to him."

Beyond the authority given the priest in matters pertaining to the religion, he also has influence in matters of education and recreation. But his power in such matters is more dependent upon his individual characteristics and personality than upon any clearly defined aspect of his priestly role. Therefore, in many ways the over-all strength of a parish's institutions depends upon the energy of its priest, even within the areas of influence formally ascribed to him. Lavallée's priest, a graduate from St. Jean-Eudes College, is probably the most active of all the parish priests along the Acadian shore. Among his achievements in leadership are the completion of the St. Pierre Church and rectory (which had been begun some thirty years before by a predecessor), the establishment of the Credit Union, and the organization of the cooperative.

Although the priest is a central figure in the control of socially deviant behavior in Lavallée, his activities are part of the larger pattern of informal social control over transgressions against shared value-sentiments. Socially disruptive behavior does of course occur and reprehensible actions do take place, but as a rule people try to settle these within the community itself through persuasion, precept, interpersonal influence, and social exclusion. Only if the matter is extensive, and if they are unsuccessful by these means will they take it to the police. The latter consist in the constables who, though rarely used, are still appointed for each of the subdivisions of the Municipality, [120] and the federal organization, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which maintains a detachment in St. Malo.

In a community such as Lavallée delinquency and deviancy are most generally defined as the public breaking of the moral precepts of the Roman Catholic Church. Through observation and intensive interviewing on this subject, we were able to gather information on the types and frequency of delinquent practices among adults over a twenty-five year period. None of these acts had been brought to the attention of the police, and we could find no evidence of a serious crime. [5]

Most transgressions had to do with sex, both adultery and premarital intercourse. It would seem that very few people currently practice extramarital relations ; and when they do and it becomes known, it is severely condemned. An element in these sentiments is the feeling that such behavior is a threat to the integrity of the family.

Feeling is not so strong with regard to premarital relations, yet Lavallée appears to be among the communities of St. Malo with the lowest prevalence. Altogether there are some fifteen married couples out of a total of about eighty who are reputed to have had sexual intercourse prior to their marriage. This is, of course, a clear violation of sentiments concerning chastity, and although it has been forgiven by the public at large and the couples are now socially accepted, it is still remembered, in some instances as long as thirty years afterward.

Another and much more lightly regarded type of deviant behavior is the breaking of the laws regarding alcohol. Liquor is supposed to be sold only through government licensed and controlled stores, for consumption in private. Consequently, breaking the liquor laws means making, selling, or buying liquor from sources other than the government store and drinking in public places. Transgressing community sentiments means taking excessive quantities or drinking on wrong occasions and getting drunk. During our study only one man in the community was apparently selling liquor illegally, but bootlegging by people outside the community is patronized by Lavallée upper and lower strata individuals. Often, during parties, when hard liquor supplies get short, a bootlegger will be called upon to save the situation. Among the wealthier families there are some who drink heavily and rather consistently. These people are criticized by others in the community ; a middle class person expressed the predominant feeling in this manner : "They are the leaders, and they shouldn't drink as much as they do. I know they can afford it, but they should not let their [121] drinking interfere with their work. Or, what is even worse, they should not let their drinking disrupt their family life." The poorer people who drink excessively are also criticized, perhaps more severely, because they cannot afford it.

Aside from these two forms of disapproved behavior, only very infrequent breaches of morality were observed or reported in Lavallée. For example there was mention of rare theft and of wife beating. So, while realizing the drinking and sexual acts which occur among them, Lavallée villagers speak with some pride about the high levels of morality found in their community-"the highest in the whole County," they say.

From our study of the County, it is our impression that the people of Lavallée are in the main right. They do stand very high in these matters, and if not at the top, they are close to it.

IV. PATTERNS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

The central facts of religious life in Lavallée have already been implied in the preceding pages : depth and pervasiveness. We will now focus more specifically on religious institutions and practices.

It will be recalled that Lavallée is in St. Pierre parish, which contains the other shoreline communities of Philip's Point, Le Brun's Cove, St. Pierre, and a small backland hamlet, Frontière. The church building for the parish is one of the most impressive in this part of the Province. It is a large building, and made of stone in an area where all other churches are of wood. The building is an important Acadian religious center throughout the year, but it is particularly so during the festivities around August 15th which mark the feast day of the patron saint of the Acadians. At that time Acadians come from all over the Baie, Central Canada, and the United States.

In Lavallée, as in all St. Malo, the priest is expected to participate in many community affairs as well as in everything religious. All doors are open to him and, theoretically at least, all concerns are his. This orientation has a historical basis as well as an explicitly religious one, for during much of the last century the priest was the only person with education and he was needed in numerous matters of practical concern. Although today there are, of course, other people with considerable learning and knowledge, some of the tradition persists. The priest acts as an adviser or an active organizer in recreational, educational, [122] and sometimes even business affairs. We have mentioned that the Lavallée priest was instrumental in the development of the Credit Union and Cooperative. He also sits in on meetings of the St. Malo Board of Trade. The presence of the priest in nonreligious associations is considered by Lavallée people to be a contribution to the efficiency and smooth functioning of the organization. Although there are some private murmurings that have an anti-clerical tone, one hears no public statement to the effect that anything is outside the domain of his appropriate interest. It should be noted, however, that the position of the priest in Lavallée is to some extent the product of a particular individual's stature as a person and the picture is not altogether the same in other parishes.

The priest's activities are only one illustration of the influence of the church. The Lavallée people attribute to it the higher level of morality which they feel characterizes their village and they see religion as one of the most important of the bonds uniting the community.

In the FLS, 94 per cent of the respondents said that people of their village are either "all very religious" or "most very religious," which is considerably higher than the figure for the County as a whole (70 per cent). In terms of public religious participation, 34 per cent of the

Key to columns 

1 : attends meetings of church-sponsored organizations at least once a month.
2 : attends all or most of the religious services.
3 : attends church at least once a month.
4 : is affiliated with a church.

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heads of households said they attend meetings of church-sponsored organizations at least once a month, as well as all or most of the religious services offered. As can be seen from Table III-7, this is double the figure for all other St. Malo Catholics. For details of the items in the scale, see Appendix B, pp. 481-482.

Whether outward religious behavior of this type is only on the surface, or whether it is an expression of deeply personalized religious sentiments is a question that may well be asked. In Lavallée, however, observation while living in the community and the results of key informant [124] interviewing leave us convinced that this behavior is not superficial.

Table III-8 shows the results of an attempt to make an FLS index of private religious participation. Lavallée and the rest of St. Malo are compared.

Considering the sample size, there is in this instance no essential difference between Lavallée and St. Malo generally. In all, three quarters of the heads of households feel that religion is very important in their lives and practice some form of home worship.

A questionnaire item which more indirectly bears on commitment to the religious community was : "If you had a friend who belonged to your denomination and he left, would you (a) feel less friendly toward him ; (b) stay friends, but try to get him to return ; or (c) consider it none of your business ?" Only 30 per cent of the Lavallée sample would consider it none of their business (compared to 38 per cent for St. Malo as a whole), while 70 per cent would take sterner measures. Of the latter, 14 per cent would break the relationship completely (compared to 15 per cent for the Municipality as a whole), and 56 per cent would try to get him to return (the comparable figure for St. Malo is 47 per cent).

A final survey item concerned intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants. Eighty-seven per cent of the Lavallée respondents "would object strongly" to one of their children marrying outside the faith, while the remainder would "object some." None of the respondents expressed themselves as having "no objection." Again, as in other features, one sees the heightening in Lavallée of some of the more widespread Acadian sentiments. The distribution for St. Malo as a whole is 70 per cent who would object strongly, 15 per cent who would object some, and 15 per cent who have no objections or say it "would depend on the other faith."

There is convergence, then, of the questionnaire indications with the anthropological field data on church participation and religious practices which points up the pervasiveness and intensity of community religious sentiments.

This evidence of high participation does not mean that there have been no changes in religious feeling and practice. Today in Lavallée it is said that religion is less collective and that some people are taking greater initiative in their ways of relating to God. This means, for example, less family worship, less emphasis on the family attending [125] church together, and the formation of age-defined cliques among the young people. In extreme cases there is increased importance attached to material "success" and even interest in birth control practices.

An attempt to show changes in religious participation is given in Table III-9 For details see Appendix B, pp. 485 ff.

Since both Lavallée and the St. Malo respondents are Catholic, comparison between these two units in terms of religious behavior is both meaningful and possible. Comparison with the County as a whole is more difficult, however, since here one half of the population is Protestant, which brings in consideration of factors of religious norms and expected practices. On the other hand, comparison of trends in [126] religious behavior, as in the above index, is probably justified-i.e., the evidence, within one broad religious division, of a greater trend toward secularization than is found in either Lavallée or St. Malo as a whole.

The discussion of religious life patterns in Lavallée has been brief. Reasons are easy to see, for in previous pages concerning the economy and community life patterns, aspects of the religion relevant for our purposes were so closely entwined as to make some anticipatory description of them necessary.

V. FAMILY LIFE PATTERNS

In Acadian culture the family in its religious context is still the most important basic social unit, regulating many economic, church-centered, and social activities. One expression of this in the past was the canton, a territorial division consisting of all members of one extended family. These cantons were an aspect of the pattern of dividing property equally among male descendants. In Lavallée today the canton no longer exists ; yet traditions and sentiments have been handed down which are its precipitates, and the village has strong cohesion based on kinship. Four large extended families are interlocked through marriage : the Lavallées, the Blanchets, the Guilbeaults, and the Campeaus. Of the total community population of 296, 281 individuals belong consanguineally and/or affinally to at least one of these four families. Thirty-two of the 281 belong to at least two of the extended families through an additional tie by marriage. Only five households (comprising fifteen people) have no consanguineal or affinal bond with the rest of the community. They consist of outside families who have moved in during recent times. And this absence of kinship linkage has some important social consequences for them. If, for instance, one of this group were to step out of line with the community's main sentiments, he would be more readily noticed and commented upon than would be the case if he were a member of one of the four family groups.

Because so many of them share a common surname, the people of Lavallée, like other Acadians, employ patronymics. Thus, a man will be known as "Willie à Ben," or "Gustave à Pierre," although on the [127] census and other official records he will be Willie Lavallée, or Gustave Blanchet. Women, even after marriage, are sometimes referred to through the father rather than through the husband-"Thérèse à Joseph," instead of "Mrs. Lebrun." It can also be noted that in the Depressed Areas the custom of employing matronymics is found-perhaps an adaptation of the Acadian practice.

The Lavallée household has an average of 3.8 person, which is identical with that of the parish. Despite the emphasis on the extended family, the actual living unit is the nuclear family-man, wife, and children. Eighty-four per cent of the Lavallée households are of this type. The alternative is to have households comprised of elderly people living with married children and grandchildren and this is found somewhat more among the middle and lower socioeconomic levels. The preponderance of nuclear families at Lavallée contrasts to some extent with other Acadian communities of the Baie. In the old days all families were of the larger type. The head and his married sons lived together in a big house until he saw fit to parcel out the land equally among them. The present-day houses of Lavallée, houses with eight or more rooms, no doubt derive from this practice.

The average age at marriage nowadays is about twenty-five. Men, however, marry later than women and are generally older than their wives by four or five years. Patrilocality and exogamy with reference to the community predominate ; we estimate that about 80 per cent of the husbands of the younger generation were born in the community, while only 25 per cent of their wives were. [6] In the past, men married women from their own community, or at least from the parish. Now, however, with better means of transportation and more time for leisure activities outside the home, they are able to travel farther to choose their wives. Geography and propinquity nevertheless remain important, and most brides who are not from Lavallée are from nearby villages.

The father's role is to be the main provider and to represent family interests outside the home. Being the provider is considered a long-range duty and, among wealthier families, he may help his children financially for many years after they are grown up. They will be kept in school, for instance, as long as he can afford it, girls often being given as much opportunity in this respect as boys. Even after a child is married the father may continue to help with money, e.g., in the [128] building of a new house or in making substantial contributions to the church on behalf of his children.

Early in life a girl begins to be trained for being a mother and good wife, this orientation being emphasized by her toys (dolls, baby carriages, and the like). The mother is said to be the "pillar of the family," and one of her main duties is to teach her children codes of moral behavior and basic religious principles even before they are of school age. This crucial position is emphasized in the teachings of the Church. Priests often remark that "our religious vocation is due to the prayers and patient efforts of our pious mothers." Concomitant with the high value placed on the role of mother is that placed on being a skillful housekeeper and cook. This finds expression in the attention given to cleaning and caring for a house and in the critical comments that may be made of a woman who is lax.

Marriage is for many peoples a holy bond, and among the Acadians and especially in Lavallée this aspect is taken with particular seriousness. Affective relationships and sexual satisfaction are probably second in importance. That is to say, they are considered desirable and significant too, but if they are not achieved, the family group is likely to remain stable nonetheless. The over-all well-being of the children is considered of greater importance than the personal happiness of either parent. This view is firmly rooted in both church and community.

As is well known, no divorce is possible under the principles of the Roman Catholic Church ; in cases of legal separation, a new marriage cannot be contracted by either spouse. Most families in Lavallée appear to be high in the qualities of compatibility and cohesion. There are two cases of legal separation in the community, and none of desertion or divorce. Three households were estimated to be "psychologically broken," exhibiting nonsupport and extreme incompatibility of personalities.

In the event of death of one parent, there are strong sentiments in the community favoring remarriage in order that the children can be cared for. Sometimes circumstances (such as age) make for difficulties in remarriage, and there are nine broken homes in Lavallée at the present time due to death of one of the parents.

This makes a total of approximately fourteen households (out of about eighty in the community at the time of the study) broken from all causes.

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Infancy Experience. [7] Turning to some specific areas of infant socialization, we can first consider feeding and toilet training. Lavallée mothers are rated moderately severe in their feeding compared to the other groups we have for reference. This means, for example, that only some 32 per cent breast feed their children, and these for an average time of two and a half months.

On the other hand, weaning to the cup is introduced at 16.9 months and is completed in some two months. The children are reported by their mothers as showing the least over-all adverse reaction to weaning, and some 72 per cent of them are weaned gradually. Such mothers do not allow these children to return to the breast or bottle completely and may apply moderate pressure for change ; or they may train the children to eat while permitting return to the bottle or breast. In 10 per cent of the cases the child weans himself.

Subsequent feeding practices are on the whole about midway between a policy of scheduling and one of self-demand. Approximately 40 per cent of the infants are on complete self-demand, being fed when they cry or are hungry and being permitted to eat as much and as long (or as little) as they wish. About 10 per cent of the mothers evince leniency with only vague attempts at scheduling, while 19 per cent stick to planned timing within a half hour period, more or less, introducing some modification if the child seems hungry. Finally, another 29 per cent have more rigid schedules, being willing to modify the feeding time by not more than fifteen minutes.

Some 52 per cent of the Lavallée mothers in the sample report that they have feeding problems with their infants, although these are usually mild. For example, the infant may be finicky about food and show some loss of appetite, but for short periods. None reported any severe feeding problems such as gagging, vomiting, or refusal to eat.

Bowel training is initiated in Lavallée later than in any other place studied in the County ; namely, at 15.8 months, and it is not completed until 24.3 months. The punishment used during the process is of the mildest form. In only 15 per cent of the cases was severe training found ; that is, punishment for "accidents," with the mother emotional and angry about the child soiling himself. The modal group, almost half of the mothers, falls between "being not at all severe," in which the child more or less trained himself and there is no punishment, and "moderate pressure," in which there is scolding for late slips and fairly frequent placing of the child on the pot.

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The child's reactions to the toilet training are also apparently mild in Lavallée, although the difference here from other areas does not seem to be marked.

With the average age of children in this study at five years seven months, 30 per cent of the mothers report that their children are still wetting their beds at night, at least occasionally, which is comparable to the other areas. On the other hand, only 43 per cent of the mothers report that their infants never wet their beds nowadays and have not done so since they were two years old or younger, which is the smallest proportion in this category for any community studied.

In terms of affective relationships with the child, some 43 per cent of Lavallée mothers are at least "relatively responsive," meaning that either they pick the infant up if he is crying, although occasionally they may allow him to cry for brief periods, or else they are highly responsive and immediately pick him up to fondle. Some 24 per cent are relatively unresponsive, picking the infant up only if they believe something to be wrong and otherwise allowing him to cry for extended periods. The remaining proportion‑one third of the mothers-are in the middle position, saying that they pick up the child if they think he is hungry, but would allow him to cry for a short period if they thought he was simply "fretful." In regard to crying, however, it should be noted here that only a few mothers reported that their infants had cried a great deal, whereas 86 per cent said there was either very little or only an average amount of crying.

In matters of affectionate interaction with the infant aside from care-taking, Lavall6e mothers are about evenly split‑one third who report only occasional or no interaction, a third who report "some," and a third who have much, with singing, cuddling, and playing. The third with little or none beyond routine care is a high proportion for the several communities. But it may be that the caretaking requires most of the mother's time, and she in fact gives the infant much affection in the course of this. Thus, some 53 per cent of the Lavallée mothers report that they receive either much or a great deal of pleasure in taking care of small babies-finding them "appealing," "cute," "lovable," etc. Another 25 per cent get "some" pleasure from this activity and the remaining quarter receive only a little fun, finding children more interesting when they are older. On another scale, 86 per cent of Lavallée mothers range from being considered moderately warm to extremely warm and affectionate with [131] their infants-holding the baby and cuddling him and often using enthusiastic expressions, such as "adorable."

The job of caring for an infant in Lavallée is shared ; in fact, mothers in this village do proportionately less caretaking than in any other of the Focus Area-less than half. Although 74 per cent of the fathers are said to do "some" or quite a bit of helping, the principal aids are grandmothers, other relatives, and baby sitters. Some 53 per cent of the persons who give care to a baby are of these types.

Childhood Experience. Lavallée parents adopt a strict position with regard to the problem of training and channeling aggressive impulses. They are consistently the least permissive of all Focus Areas in the handling of hostility displayed by their children, whether directed toward other children, siblings, or toward themselves. Some 76 per cent of Lavallée mothers, for example, are rated as "not at all permissive" toward aggression displayed against parents, and this includes such behavior as "sassing," deliberate disobedience, and teasing. These mothers feel that such behavior should not be permitted under any circumstances, and they always try to stop the child immediately, whether the aggression is verbal or physical. Another 19 per cent are only slightly less permissive, ranking in the second position on a scale of five points. The remaining 5 per cent are rated as moderately permissive.

The mothers have more permissiveness for aggression directed toward siblings, with 53 per cent either being "not at all permissive" or tending toward "moderately permissive," which means they would stop the behavior if someone were getting hurt and would allow verbal disagreements if they were not long continuing.

Regarding hostility toward children outside the immediate family, Lavallée mothers take a dim view of fighting even if their own child is provoked. One quarter of the mothers stated that they want no aggression toward other children whatsoever, no matter what the circumstances ; and altogether 86 per cent took a decidedly negative view toward fighting.

Such efforts of the Lavallée parents are apparently successful, for these children seem to display the least quarrelling among siblings and the least aggression in the home. For example, 86 per cent of the mothers report that the child has shown either no aggression in the home or only mild aggression. Thirty-three per cent report that their [132] children have never displayed aggression toward either mother or father. In those cases where some aggression is reported, it is interesting to note that the punishment tends to be fairly mild or, at the most, moderate. It would consist, for example, in the child being scolded and sent to his room, with the displeasure of his parents made evident.

Lavallée mothers also present the highest level of restrictions and demands for proper conduct and demeanor in general. They are the most concerned of all groups, for example, in preventing the use of fingers at the table and the interruption of adult conversation. They also use the most pressure to secure conformity to these standards.

Again regarding the care of the house and furniture, Lavallée parents have the highest restrictions, being extreme as compared to the other places. On a five-point scale which goes from a rating of 1 for few restrictions (i.e., the child may jump on the furniture, put his feet on the furniture, mark up the walls, play with other people's belongings) to a rating of 5 for many restrictions (i.e., it is very important for the child to be careful about marking the furniture, he must take off his shoes before putting his feet upon something, he is not allowed to touch other people's belongings), 76 per cent of Lavallée parents have a rating of 4 and another 14 per cent rate 5. Standards for personal neatness and orderliness are likewise elevated, with 67 per cent of the mothers having from "moderate" to "high" standards. This means that the child must wash before meals, hang up his clothing, put his toys in order, keep his drawers neat, and change into the proper clothes for playing and for dinner. The pressures applied to maintain these standards are high, with 95 per cent rating as at least "moderate" and almost half verging toward the extreme. There are somewhat extreme rules about making noise around the house, and bedtime behavior is treated in a fairly strict fashion. There is a time for being in bed, and mild scolding occurs for not having lights out, door closed, etc. Altogether, 62 per cent of the mothers place at least some limitations on bedtime behavior and 20 per cent are rated as "very strict" in this respect.

There tend to be fairly marked limitations on the child's physical mobility, with almost 40 per cent of the mothers placing considerable restrictions. For example, although the child is allowed to go to school by himself, he cannot go outside the yard. Another 19 per cent do not even allow the child to go to school alone.

Both parents have the highest standards of all groups studied for [133] obedience, although they do not feel that this constitutes much of a problem for them. Thus, 52 per cent of the mothers want the child to obey, but they expect some delay in the response ; whether or not this delay is tolerated depends on the situation. Another 24 per cent exact a stricter compliance, wanting obedience at the first or second demand. Five per cent expect instant obedience and do not tolerate delay at all. The fathers, as reported by the mothers, tend to expect similar obedience, but seem a bit more tolerant.

In the matter of education, Lavallée mothers desire their children to go further than those of any other group, and it is also far more important to them that the child do well in school. For example, 47 per cent of the mothers feel that it is either "important" or "very important" for their child to succeed in school, and another 33 per cent say simply that it is important, but have qualifications of sorts. Although the modal level of hoped-for attainment is high school (43 per cent), the remainder would like to see at least some college training achieved. Nineteen per cent want completion of college and, of these, a small group hope for graduate or professional school training. Of the economic levels into which the mothers want their children to fit, the largest group (33 per cent) wish for major professional or managerial positions, or that of high school teachers, medium entrepreneurs, and departmental managers. Evidently some of these aspirations are contagious, for the mothers say their children demand teaching even before entering school. This includes such behavior as asking to be shown about writing and use of figures and letters of the alphabet. This is more frequently reported in Lavallée than in any other community studied, and might be related to the fact that many of the mothers were schoolteachers before marriage.

On the wider problem of emotional dependency, Lavall6e children do not seem to evince much of this, either in childhood or in infancy. Thus, 58 per cent of the mothers report that their child displays either "none" or "a little," dependency ; that is, occasionally doing such things as following her around, wanting attention from her, objecting when she leaves, or asking her to help with things which he could do himself. Only 5 per cent are said to show a great deal of dependency, and the remainder are in between. When dependency is displayed by a child, the modal response of Lavallée mothers (33 per cent) is somewhat negative, i.e., not always helping, perhaps occasionally showing irritation.

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As to techniques for obtaining desired behavior from their children, 62 per cent of the Lavallée mothers say they prefer to use physical punishment. Although this is the second highest of any of the groups studied, there is a difference between what is given as the preferred technique, and what is in fact most often used. Lavallée mothers tend to employ words more frequently than do mothers in other places, including reasoning and ridicule, but not very much praise. Deprivation of privileges and desired objects tend also to be used instead of physical punishment.

With regard to the value placed on the role of mother, the Lavallée women respondents have the highest degree of self-esteem and tend to be quite satisfied with their current life situation. To begin with, almost 60 per cent of them did not work before marriage ; of those who did, no one felt it was a sacrifice to give up working to have a family. Relatively few make deprecating remarks about themselves in regard to the role of mother, such as criticizing the manner in which they raise their children or feeling that they do not know the proper way to manage the training and education of interests and impulses. Some 71 per cent are at least generally satisfied with their current situation in life, and no one is dissatisfied.

Concerning responsibility for family decisions, Lavallée mothers have a high rating among the groups studied.

They also have very little to disapprove of in the way their husbands discipline the child, with 76 per cent agreeing wholeheartedly. There is a tendency both for the mothers to think that their husbands are not strict enough in disciplining the child and to reflect that their husbands do not think that they, as mothers, are sufficiently strict with the children. Perhaps an indication of the quality of relations between parents in Lavallée is found in the fact that 67 per cent of the respondents report that they and their husbands are in very near agreement on child-rearing techniques and policies, in some cases not being able to cite a single example of disagreement.

In summary of these data on child-rearing practices in Lavallée we can observe first that infancy experiences are characterized by relative mildness. The children here have slow and persuasive weaning, the latest and mildest bowel training and the mildest reaction to both these experiences. Further events during infancy include the mother's [135] not displaying a great deal of affectionate interaction with the infant, although this is perhaps due in part to many other people sharing in the infant's care. The father participates in this as well as other relatives. On the other hand, the comparative absence of breast-feeding is of interest and somewhat surprising to note.

Childhood, in contrast to infancy, appears to be progressively more ordered and restricted. There is the least permissiveness for aggression, parents having little tolerance for hostility in any form and reporting the least quarrelling among siblings. In terms of punishment, spanking, although actually not frequent, is said to be the preferred disciplinary technique. There are high restrictions in almost all areas of property care and also the highest demands for educational attainment and great importance attached to doing well in this respect.

Lavallée mothers have the highest degree of self-esteem and are satisfied with their life situation. They have more authority for family decisions than the father has but, even so, the fathers in Lavallée seem to occupy a fairly unique position. Thus mothers report that their husbands have the happiest relationship with their children and do the most caretaking. Also, fathers in this village are the least likely of any place studied to have been away from the family, even for overnight.

VI. SENTIMENTS

We turn now to another mode of concept and discourse for understanding Lavallée, one which will be followed in each chapter on the Focus Areas. The main interest up to now was in assessing the principal patterns of the community from the viewpoint of socio-cultural integration. At times, however, something was said of the meaning of these for the people of Lavallée-the sentiments accompanying and lying behind the overt acts. These now become foremost.

In the frame of reference of the Stirling County Study, the concept of sentiment is a central matter. Since it is discussed at some length in the first volume of this series, only a brief summary need be offered here. [8]

A sentiment is conceived to be a union, or intersection, of cognitive and affective processes which have duration along the life-arc (Volume 1, p. 27). Thus, this entity (or process-pattern) is something that has [136] a time dimension ; a single momentary conjunction of a particular type of affect with an idea is not considered a sentiment in the usage applied here.

Sentiments are a property of personality, and their locus is therefore in the central nervous system. Personality itself refers to the functioning of a person considered as a living, self-integrating unit, at the center of which is the entity, "I," "me," "myself." Sentiments are functionally important in the integration of the personality unit, both synchronically and diachronically. They are thus in part linked to and interdependent with unconscious psychological processes and in part a manifest system of tendencies. Because of the latter, they may be used to characterize selected aspects of a personality as "John likes to work hard" or "he loves his family." They can also be employed more extensively as a means of describing for a given individual, with economy of words, the majority of his manifest and predictable tendencies to feel, think, and act. Thus, personality may be viewed as having a surface area composed of interlinked sentiments through which perception and expression take place.

The relationship of sentiments to symbols is particularly important. Insofar as one of the aspects of a sentiment is its intellectual content, its cognitive or perceptual element can be said to contain an idea. This idea is the basis of the symbolic representation which occurs both in mentation within the individual and in communication between individuals. Language is the most common form of symbolization, and for this reason we usually choose to think of and express sentiments of a given type through language-e.g., "Mary loves children." It should also be recognized that some of the most powerful evokers of sentiments are nonverbal symbols. Examples are the flag and the call of a bugle rallying men to the charge on a battlefield.

Sentiments are, then, ultimately the "private property" of an individual, and the total inventory of his sentiments (never static but always altering to some extent with changes in the person and in the environment) is peculiarly his own. At the same time, however, many similar sentiments are in a sense shared with other people. This occurs particularly with reference to the primary and other groups of a given individual's social environment. A phenomenon essential for the existence of society is a sharing of sentiments and the inculcating of these into new members as they replace those lost by death or migration. [137] Shared sentiments therefore constitute one category among those which make up each individual's total inventory.

The quality of being "shared" in this sense refers, of course, to the fact that two or more people are characterized by personality processes which can be evoked by the same symbols and which lead to the same type of behavior. As noted in Volume 1, p. 257 :

It is suggested that sentiment as a conceptual device constitutes a bridge for analysis and inquiry between socio-cultural processes and personality processes. Furthermore, it is thought that this bridging is of a type particularly relevant to the problems of mental health and socio-cultural environment.

The bridging stems from the functioning of sentiments both in socio-cultural integration and in personality integration. It is not a question here of analogy, or of like processes having a similar name, but of the same process having both a group and an individual aspect.

To repeat an earlier observation, sentiments are never literally shared, but rather invoked by means of symbols which are shared. Symbols have therefore a double role, one in mentation and one in communication. Thus, to speak more precisely though less conveniently, it is the symbol-sentiment-interpersonal process that has both a group and an individual aspect. It is hoped that this will be understood whenever there is reference to shared sentiments.

Since the collective behavior of a group of people is under the influence of, though not exclusively a product of, the sentiments existing among them at a given moment, it can be seen that shared sentiments play a very crucial role in the functioning of the group in relation to the demands of its environment. Provisions for clothing, feeding, and protection from cold ; for safety from enemies ; and for inculcation into the young of modes for behavior-and many, many other types of socio-cultural functions are influenced by the shared sentiments characteristic of the group.

It is suggested that sentiments can be regarded in terms of three different modes : (1) what is ; (2) what ought to be ; and (3) what is desired.

The first mode is orientational, that charting of the world in terms of which people expect, interpret, and act. Taken together, such sentiments constitute perceived reality, which may or may not be commensurate with "true" reality. Thus the view of the world as flat and [138] the later view of it as round are equally orientational sentiments. The second mode refers to those sentiments often represented by the word "values"–the ideals of behavior, both for oneself and for others. The third refers to what the individual may want, his hankering to have or avoid particular things, persons, and situations, to do or not to do certain acts.

It is to be noted that these "modes" do not represent separate categories of sentiment. A given sentiment can well be in all three simultaneously, as when one wants a legitimate object that is also realistically attainable. The wish to get married can serve as a concrete illustration. On the other hand, a sentiment can be in only one mode and can furthermore be in conflict with the modes of other sentiments. The most common example of this in the lot of mortals is to desire something that is either nonexistent or forbidden, according to the shared sentiments of this socio-cultural group, or both.

In our attempt to assess the shared sentiments of Lavallée some basis for selection was, of course, necessary. To count all sentiments held by two or more people in the village would have been a task so vast as to be impossible. Starting from our concern with the community as a self-integrating unit, we chose four criteria : depth of affect, prevalence, position, and salience. [9]

Depth of affect means simply that the sentiment should involve something that people care about ; it should not be easily overlooked or altered. Prevalence is also fairly evident in its meaning ; namely, that sentiments chosen should be widespread in the community and not restricted to just a few persons.

Position and salience require a little more explanation. Position means that the sentiment should be held by people whose place in the social system is such as to make their views and actions influential on the whole group. The priest, the leading businessman, and the heads of extended families are examples. Thus a sentiment which is not really prevalent may indirectly have a good deal of influence because of its locus in such people.

Salience means that the sentiments should be important to the social process of the group. Sentiments of this sort are those that organize large sections of socio-cultural life and bear directly on the functioning of the community.

In applying these criteria we regarded them as guides rather than as [139] rules. For instance, it was not necessary for a sentiment to qualify in terms of all four criteria.

The selections were made on the basis of impressions gained by the fieldworkers who studied the village, together with a review of the mass of recorded data. The result is not satisfactory in terms of quantification, particularly with regard to the criterion of prevalence. Nevertheless, it was deliberately chosen after considerable thought and experimentation over several years as being the most appropriate given our level of knowledge and stage of concept refinement. It would have been possible to create a schedule and conduct systematic interviews, but this would have necessitated a great many a priori judgments with regard to what should be included and excluded and would have predetermined in an arbitrary manner the nature of the results and in all probability given a seriously distorted picture of what was in fact going on in the community. What we did in place of this was somewhat similar to that done in the County as a whole with regard to Poverty, Secularization, and Cultural Confusion : we began with a general idea and through attempts to apprehend the relevant phenomena we developed definitions.

A problem of particular concern in all this was that of choosing an appropriate level of abstraction. As noted in Volume I (p. 234), the concept of sentiments, like the concept of society, covers a range from the highly particular to the exceedingly general, and one is faced with the necessity in any given operation of selecting the level of abstraction best suited to the problem at hand. This could not very well be determined in advance but had to be worked out in the light of field experience. We had to find by trial what seemed the best point between the extreme of enormous and unmanageable number of detailed sentiments and such broad generalizations as would have little or no value in giving information about the community.

This section on sentiments as well as the material in the following chapters may be regarded as one attempt at seeing the socio-cultural environment as it is perceived by people living in it. Whatever may be the "objective" situation with regard to poverty, for instance, the most immediately significant question is the perception of poverty. Through this we hope to move toward the filling in of some of the causal links between the environment, as seen in terms of the indicators of socio-cultural disintegration, and the cognitive and affective world of the individual.

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The brief discussions given after the statement of each sentiment are intended to summarize the types of data from which the sentiment has been inferred. There is consequently some repetition from one page to another. We hope the reader will understand that the presentation in each instance is in a different context and has different meaning. [10]

We Acadians are a separate ethnic group, and we have survived through a miracle willed by Providence.

The Acadians of Lavallée, as well as those of St. Malo as a whole, consider themselves clearly distinct from other ethnic groups. The boundaries are clear and their integrity is emphasized. The Acadians call themselves "Le Peuple Acadien" and "La Nation Acadienne," a reflection of this feeling of a separate "national" and cultural identity. During the activities marking the bicentennial of the Acadian Dispersal in 1955, one of the prominent religious leaders expressed some of the symbolism of this sentiment in the following terms :

Here is the flag of the Acadian nation, the flag which we are proud to hold very high because it is the symbol of our survival. If you examine it you will notice the blue, the white, and the red. The blue stands for Mary. Mary is at the beginning of our history and it is our hope that she will also be there at the end. On the blue, there is a yellow star. She is the "Maria Stella" and she guided our forefathers, protected them. You can be sure that she will continue to guide and protect us. The white is a symbol of purity and peace. People of this country were and still are an example to the whole American continent of purity and peace. The white is also a symbol of our faith, the Catholic faith. And finally, the red is a symbol of our martyrdom. Our fathers suffered a lot at the hands of our conquerors. So let us not be afraid of suffering. We Acadians are definitely Catholics. In the history of Jesus Christ there are three mysteries : the joyful, the sorrowful, and the glorious. In our history we find the same mysteries. I said "mystery." Yes, our survival is a real intervention from God. You cannot understand it otherwise. It took place two hundred years ago. At that moment in time, nobody would have been able to predict the consequences. Families here and there were taken away. The English were sure that they would never hear from them again.... Do you remember the first years of our Acadian history ? That was the joyful mystery. From that time of our dispersal up to the present we have lived the sorrowful mysteries. With these celebrations, we are entering the glorious mysteries.

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This heightened sense of group feeling began with the first Acadian national convention of the late nineteenth century and has been reemphasized at following conventions in subsequent years. The Holy Virgin Mary became the Acadian patron saint, and the "national" holiday for the Acadians, the day of her Assumption. The Ave Maria Stella was chosen as the national anthem, and the Tricolor described above was adopted as the Acadian flag.

In differentiating themselves, the Acadians exclude other French Canadians, to whom they refer as "Les Canadiens." This Acadian-Canadian dichotomy was made explicit as early as 1919 at a meeting of the alumni of the St. Jean-Eudes College by a distinguished alumnus :

Both the French-Canadians and the Acadians are vigorous nations, vigorous because we kept alive our old traditions, vigorous because we preserved our language, and most of all, because our Christian faith still guides us, as it always enlightened the lives of our forefathers who came from France... I am not among those who wish to assimilate the two nations : Canadian and Acadian. We are two distinct entities, though of the same origin, of the same religious faith, and speaking the same language.

As conceived by past and contemporary leaders, the main difference between the two groups is historical circumstance and a development which has crystallized into today's culture. Prior to the 1755 Dispersal, Canada and Acadia were in fact two separate colonies having but few relationships with each other. Although geography had a good deal to do with this separation, another influence was probably the origin of the Acadians in parts of France different from those of most of the French-Canadians. Each group may be supposed to have brought to the New World customs and traditions of its own and to have evolved these along somewhat different lines down to the present day. The most important distinguishing feature, however, is the Dispersal of the Acadians and the events which followed in its wake.

This sense of ethnic difference from the linguistically, religiously, and culturally similar people of French descent in other parts of Canada is widespread in St. Malo. Although the sentiment is not unique to Lavallée, it is salient in socio-cultural life, and the sense of ethnic identification permeating much of daily behavior is exceedingly strong in this community.

When Acadians recall all the difficulties and vicissitudes which their [142] ancestors had to endure at the time of their return to the Province, and during the 200 years elapsed since then, they interpret their survival literally in terms of miracles. Although they feel that their ancestors were extremely courageous and strong, they also point out that they were isolated and illiterate and that the English had the power to dispossess them. In other words, the forces which were at work for the dissolution of the group were far greater than the strength of their forefathers, and hence the survival of the Acadians can be explained only by reference to "outside" help. This the Acadians consider to be intervention by God. One informant referred to the survival as "The Acadian Miracle, the most astonishing miracle in the whole world." He added, "It is completely unbelievable that a nation expelled from its land and dispossessed from its farms by outsiders had the will to come back and start all over again from scratch." [11]

A priest in his sermon on the feast of Mary developed a similar theme :

The Pope has given us the Holy Virgin as Patron Saint. It was to commemorate the great miracle in modern times : the survival of a whole group scattered to the winds. This was a miracle of faith on the part of a small people who were profoundly devoted to the Mother of God... It is a miracle which seems to be self-perpetuating.

There is in this sentiment a theme which is seldom made explicit but which permeates much of the Acadian thought about the group and its history : that God has chosen the Acadians to fulfill the mission of Roman Catholic expansion in all the Atlantic provinces. This sense of mission, of martyrdom for a cause, is another feature which in their minds distinguishes the Acadians from the French-descent people of the St. Lawrence.

The survival of the Acadians as a separate group
is of fundamental importance.

Although conceiving themselves as people chosen by God and with a special mission to fulfill-that of preserving the sacred trust of their ancestors and perpetuating and expanding the group-the Acadians of St. Malo and Lavallée realize that they are nevertheless a minority beset on all sides by the dominant British-derived culture which includes a different language, religion, and in some ways different [143] community and family customs. This sense of struggle is never absent ; it is emphasized both in daily discourse and community life and in sermons by the Acadian priests. Leaders of the group recognize that some of their people will be assimilated-"lost," as they say-but it is anticipated that the majority will successfully resist and the Acadians remain intact. The eventual hope, or long-range goal, is that one day the entire Maritime region will be Acadian-in a sense, the fruition of the plans of the earliest Acadian settlers more than 300 years ago.

The people of Lavallée believe strongly that church and family institutions have always been, and should remain, at the core of their ethnic survival. To this end they have organized formal associations which aim at weakening alien sentiments within their group, at strengthening certain congenial influences from the French-Canadians, at improving their educational level, at raising the standard of living, and at gaining recognition of their "national" rights in the Province. Lavallée village takes active part in these endeavors and contributes proportionately the largest number of supporters and leaders to the associations. As one informant has said :

The first Acadian Convention in the Province took place in the St. Pierre parish. This means something. It means that people, here especially, were proud of being Acadian, and were among the first ones to realize that they had survived as a people and wanted to organize themselves.

Although Lavallée has very largely set the pace for the revival movement in the area, some businessmen do not wholeheartedly support some of the extreme goals of the movement. They feel that the economic structure of the region cannot stand such a submergence in these ethnic considerations. They are, however, strongly opposed by others, especially some of the younger leaders who have risen in St. Malo during the last decade. This generation acts more and more as a group motivated by a common purpose. Instead of totally resisting alien influences by turning their preoccupations inward and exulting in their historical past, they look ahead and hatch programs intended to be consistent with modern life and progress. They feel that their survival can be achieved through strong Acadian leadership in the religious, political, and economic fields, by keeping family traditions intact, by gaining certain rights for instruction of Acadian pupils in the public school (e.g., classes conducted in French up to the high [144] school level) and, finally, by the establishing of vigorous Acadian associations. The securing of greater access to French mass media of communication, particularly a French radio station and a French newspaper in the Province, is one immediate focus of effort. They would like to help spread the enthusiasms of the "Relèvement" ("the revival") to other Acadians.

The Catholic religion and the French language
are integral parts of Acadian culture and must be preserved.

A sentiment closely related to those just mentioned-one that is a part of the general complex of sentiments related to group self-image–concerns the retention of a particular religion and language. The Roman Catholic religion and the French language are believed to be inextricably entwined in support of Acadian ethnic ideals. We heard it said many times "He who loses his faith loses his language, and he who loses his language loses his faith." The most distinctive mark, then, of the Acadian ethnic group is this tenacious union between a faith and a tongue, and it is felt by the Acadians that unless the union is maintained, the group can scarcely hold its separate identity.

People do not understand why our language and our faith are our most cherished heritage and why they are the symbols of our truly Acadian traditions. We have been raised in the Catholic Church, and the French language is essential to our religion. You see, the Acadian who speaks French is interested in things Acadian ; and our Catholic faith is the most fundamental thing in our lives.

With the Acadians, as with many cultural groups, the Church Universal has its localized translation into the dominant features of the group in which it is found. In this case, language is one such important feature.

The union between language and religion is fostered by the belief that, in the Province and Nation, speaking English is always associated with Protestantism, whereas speaking French generally means a Catholic adherence. Actually, of course, there are Scottish Catholics and Irish Catholics, some of the latter being in Stirling itself, and through most of the nineteenth century the Acadians were served mainly by Irish clergy. But these facts do not change Acadian perceptions ; if anything, they reinforce in‑group feelings through recollected antipathies toward the Irish hierarchy and lead to even greater emphasis on the [145] necessity for union between language and religion. Hence, for their religious leadership, the people of St. Malo turn to a nearby province in which the entire church hierarchy is dominated by Acadian rather than Irish clergy. [12]

In the religious and family spheres of life, therefore, the Franco-Acadian language must be preferred by all Acadian-descent persons who are of good standing. Although most Acadians know and can use English with great fluency, the language is thought of in practical terms, as a modus vivendi in necessary contacts with the surrounding English business and social world.

The Acadian group is superior to others in spiritual things,
but is weaker in economic and political matters.

Pride in the strength and fortitude of their ancestors is a central element in their heritage, but the Acadians' over-all evaluation of themselves as a group contains some ambivalence. On the one hand, group self-esteem exists in past achievement against great odds, an achievement which is perceived as having been possible through Acadian moral qualities. But on the other hand, this sentiment of historical achievement is counterbalanced by a strong sense of inferiority in financial resources and political matters, especially with reference to the English-speaking Canadians :

I am telling you there is still today that inferiority complex of the French people towards the English. They still think that English people are better and are more intelligent.

In Lavallée, however, this feeling is not so intense as in less wealthy Acadian villages and it does not receive much public attention.

The "things of the spirit" which the Acadians of Lavallée and St. Malo feel make them superior to the English and other groups include religion, family loyalties, fulfillment of personal duty, respect for authority, and reverence for heritage. These spiritual qualities are held up and interpreted to the community by its leaders, especially on occasions which mark their Acadian identity, such as the annual celebration to their Patron Saint.

Despite the exaltation of French and the linking of it with Catholicism, the actual feeling of the Acadians toward the dialect they speak is one of inferiority. As soon as a French-speaking outsider from France or Quebec Province enters a conversation, they begin to apologize for [146] their "bad French." Most admit that the primary utility of Acadian French is in face-to-face communication within the group. It is of interest to note that although many of the better educated Acadians can write (as well as speak) proper French, the Acadian dialect itself is not a written form.

Another facet of the feeling of inferiority lies in education. While exceedingly proud of their persistence in constructing and supporting the Acadian college of St. Jean-Eudes, numbers of Acadians criticize the college's emphasis on classical studies and philosophy to the detriment of economics, mathematics, and science. They say that their educational facilities are not equal to those of English-speaking regions for preparing the Acadians to compete successfully in the political and economic fields. As one informant put it :

More practical training would equip the Acadian youth with abilities that would open up careers other than the traditional professions of the priesthood and medicine.

Although there is pride in the past and considerable hope for the future, the Acadians of Lavallée are to some extent diffident in the assessment of their capabilities.

Having many relatives and friends is a very important thing in life.

One of the statements we heard often is : "Here on the Baie, we are like a big family and we know each other on a personal basis." They conceive themselves to be a vast extended family and derive great pleasure and security from familiarity and association with many people. Noted before was the fact that Lavallée is populated mainly by four extended family groupings, interconnected at various generational levels through consanguinity and affinity.

The homogeneity of the group is stressed in this sentiment of being a large family," and in keeping with this is the relative classlessness of Acadian society. Great emphasis is placed on the lack of formality in dealing with acquaintances. In addressing almost everyone among themselves, for instance, the Acadians use the familiar personal pronoun "tu" instead of the more formal "vous." This intimacy has a number of other expressions :

Here in St. Malo it is like a large family, and when we go visiting we never knock on the door before entering the house. We open [147] the door, go in and join the people where they are. This is one aspect of our Acadian hospitality and informality.

Visiting relatives and neighbors is considered of major importance, and Acadians who are away will travel long distances to be at home for a holiday. Close, friendly neighbors are considered essential and, especially during difficulties or trouble, their assistance and support are warmly received. This is one of the reasons that life in the backlands isolated from close neighbors is not liked so much as living on the shore.

In the course of our field work we noted that some people, looking at a map of the region, could identify an astonishing number of houses throughout St. Malo and give many personal details about the occupants. When we asked about a person who was not known to the informant directly, he could often name his kin group and family and supply details about them. The father's name, or even the grandfather's, would be mentioned as reference points for helping to place the individual in the group context. It seemed evident that knowledge of a family was thought to be as important and useful as knowledge of an individual.

The family must be kept strong.

Keeping the family a strong unit and intact from what are considered corrupting influences from the outside is a widespread sentiment and is embodied in one of the principal goals of the Revival Movement. It interlocks with certain other sentiments, such as those having to do with the community, language, and the perpetuation of the group, and it, is emphasized in religion.

One expression of the sentiment may be seen in the importance attached to in-group marriage. This is considered the greatest preserver of Acadian traditions. Marriage with other ethnic groups, especially if the non-Acadian partner does not embrace Catholicism, is viewed with extreme disfavor in Lavallée and all St. Malo. In the few instances in which this happens, the couple feels impelled to move out of the Acadian region.

Children are considered "God's blessing," and childless couples are pitied for missing the joys as well as hardships of parenthood. Much of this sentiment toward marriage and the family stems from the general philosophy of Catholic marriage. Offspring are regarded as [148] necessary complements to marriage, and fatherhood and motherhood are felt to be the greatest fulfillment of living. In case there is no issue to the marriage, childless couples are strongly encouraged to adopt a child, because the marriage is otherwise considered "incomplete."

If it is important for men and women to become fathers and mothers, it is equally important for a child to have recognizable parents. Thus, if a girl becomes pregnant outside of marriage, the most desirable solution is for her to marry the man responsible. Unless he is already married or in some other equally unfeasible situation, there will be steady pressure by the priest and parents to resolve the matter through a Catholic union.

The birth of children is anticipated with enthusiasm and preparation. The newly-born child, no matter the number of siblings, is usually as well and lovingly received as the first one. In general, child-parent relationships are affectionate, with both father and mother participating in their upbringing. Children are a source of pride to the family ; parents have great hopes for them, and consider it a supreme duty to transmit the Acadian heritage and the virtues of character which, it is believed, have helped bring the group through its difficult times in the past.

Men and women have clearly different roles in life.

The Lavallée and other Acadians feel that there exist fundamental differences between men and women, quite aside from the characteristics of sex. These consist in patterns of behavior which are socially and culturally imposed upon the growing boy and girl and gradually pervade every aspect of their lives. The woman is the keeper of the dwelling, and in Lavallée there is high prestige associated with cleanliness of the house and skill in cooking. These tasks, along with that of being the chief guide for the conduct of young children, keep the woman in the home. Although the father takes part in child care, it is clear that he is only helping in a task which is mainly that of his wife and the women who help her, and his principal activities are outside the house, looking after the family's material welfare. His authority, however, is supreme in the home, at least theoretically, and he is the chief disciplinarian, administering corporal punishment when this is necessary.

Daily spiritual teaching of the children is done mainly by the mother, in accordance with the central precepts of the church. The [149] annual sermon on vocation in Lavallée always stresses the responsibilities of the mother with regard to fostering in the child the seed of a religious vocation by teaching self-denial, love, duty, respect, and hard work.

Outside the home, in community life, it is expected that husbands and wives will also fill complementary rather than similar roles. It is now considered permissible, however, for a woman to participate in some activities traditionally reserved for men, provided she can do this without sacrifice of her "proper" role of mother and wife. Women in business illustrate this.

Although the most important thing about the community is that we are all the same, there are some people who are better off than others.

It has been noted that the Acadians of Lavallée feel that as a group they are like a large family and represent themselves to the outside world in this fashion ; nevertheless, they also recognize and act on differences in social status among themselves. This sense of difference in the midst of equality extends to the community as a whole when compared to other Acadian villages, as well as within Lavallée itself. The people feel that, although their community is Acadian and thereby part of the Acadian "family," sharing the Acadian sentiment of equality, it nevertheless exemplifies Acadian virtues to a higher degree and is "a little bit better" than the others. An expression of this can be seen in relation to Le Brun's Cove. Lavallée villagers look down upon this neighboring community, and the reasons are given by one informant as, "These people have a mentality different from our own. They are not interested in getting a good education and in getting ahead."

Within Lavallée the feeling of everyone being like everyone else is very real and there is strong assertion that this should be the case, but it is accompanied by the recognition that economic and "social" differences exist. Some people consider themselves superior to others, taking pride in having more education, more material success and savoir-faire, wider experience in life through travel, and a greater open-mindedness. The sentiment of superiority is, however, primarily covert, because most of those who are financially successful fear gossip and the accusation of exploiting their neighbors ; they play down their wealth as much as possible through the "neighborly" patterns of personal [150] association, dress, and mannerisms. The other people in the community who recognize the differentiations are apparently content to let them stand so long as they are not blatant.

One way of muting the wealth differences is through a form of paternalism in the commercial enterprises. A plant owner had this to say regarding his employees when he was forced to lay off some of them through lack of markets :

I have twenty people who work for me. I have known their fathers, I know their wives and children and I know all their background. Last week I had to lay off some of them. I can't keep them for the winter. It hurts me much to do it, and in that respect I am a slave of my employees, because I know them well enough to realize that they won't work all winter long. They will live all winter from unemployment insurance. Is that a life ? I keep telling those people, who are slaves of the pay envelope, that they should start a hobby, something which would bring them subsidiary income. Why doesn't this one start something, like buying a hundred chickens and making some money during the winter months, for instance ? Why that other wouldn't do some carpentering ? and so on. They wouldn't be exclusively dependent on me and I wouldn't be dependent on them. That's the way it should be.

In the past Acadians received very unjust treatment
at the hands of other people.

One of the most common sentiments in Lavallée and St. Malo is phrased as, "We are a martyred people." The Acadians contend that as a result of historical circumstances and malevolent design by other groups they suffered over a long period. These sufferings were caused by the English and the French, as well as by the French-speaking Canadians.

Dispersal by the English, lack of acceptance on return, and refusal by the Provincial Government to recognize their land claims are still vivid in the minds of modern Acadians. A paraphrase of many different expressions of this sentiment of martyrdom which we have heard is the following :

We are a martyred people who suffered defeat at the hands of the English, who expelled us. They wanted to take over our farms and land, which were the most productive in the Province. The manner in which we were expelled, like animals, piled up one onto the other, separated from our wives and children, was completely inhuman [151] and unjustifiable. When we returned to the Province we were not surprised to find that they had taken over our farms. We had to move to the North, which had rocky and poor soils. It is here that we have fought on uneven ground-because we were an illiterate and defeated people-for our right to live, to keep our faith and priests, and to preserve our language.

Among the educated people and the leaders there is further resentment that France, in the eighteenth century, deserted old Acadia when military and economic support were most needed for holding back the British. Likewise, there is the feeling that French Canada has been indifferent and slow in acknowledging the existence of its Acadian cousins. For one thing, it is said that the missionaries and educators sent to Acadia by Quebec were far too few, compared to the resources of French Canada. For another, a division of the Quebec Archdiocese placed the Acadians under the jurisdiction of an Irish bishop in the city of Dover. To this day it is regretted and they resent that they were not kept under a French bishop in Quebec.

Other types of people are different, some better than we are in certain things, some far inferior to us, and we Acadians have to judge carefully.

As a minority the Acadians are forced by the situation to be more sensitive than many other people to the nature of their social environment. There is continual judging and comparing of themselves to others. Any particular individual, however, of a different ethnic type will most often be evaluated from the standpoint of his personal assets, and unfavorable stereotypes about his group will come into play only if he is found to be personally undesirable or if they get angry at him. Two categories of persons do not enjoy this suspended judgment : Negroes and Indians. They are considered as always inferior to the Acadians in everything, regardless of personal qualities.

[Leonard] read in the newspaper yesterday that a colored man from Bristol was hit by a freight car and passed away a few hours after the accident.... I asked Leonard what he thought of the accident. He answered without any hesitation : "It's nothing. It's just a Negro. There are many more like them guys here."

With regard to the English Protestants, the Acadians feel them to be superior in economic resources, education, political power, and [152] savoir-faire. There is a certain measure of grudging admiration for their control and knowledge of the world, but such a feeling is counterbalanced by the Lavallée belief that in spiritual and ethical qualities–the things "that count"- the Acadians stand out. In relations with the English, therefore, the general feeling is one of getting along with them in all necessary spheres of life : "It is a question of bread and butter. But we have to guard ourselves against the effects of such a close association."

The French-speaking Canadians of Quebec Province are thought to have all the privileges characteristic of other majority groups : economic resources, political power, and better educational opportunities than exist in St. Malo. These opportunities are believed to have led to artistic and literary knowledge and the refinement of taste in general through intellectual stimulation and training. But Acadians conceive themselves to be the equals of the French-speaking Canadians in religion, and perhaps even superior in this respect.

Quebec provides a model for the Acadians of what their society might be one day. Closer associations with the French-speaking Canadians is a goal for Acadians, because it would mean numerous advantages for them : support against Irish Catholicism, some measure of political power in the nation's capital, the advantages of French-Canadian institutions of learning, and the possibility of getting more French teachers. Also encouraged by such an association would be the Revival Movement itself, for Quebec has a strong one of its own. At the same time, however, Acadians feel that if they were to have closer ties with the Quebecois they would have to guard against both the overwhelming strength of the "powerful cousins" who could absorb them and the low morals they think exist in urban Quebec.

The Irish have much political power in the Provincial capital, both in government and church affairs, but they are perceived as inferiors to the Lavallée Acadians in all other respects. Even with regard to church affairs there is some reservation and suspicion, and the Acadians are reticent and distrustful toward their own Irish bishops. An example of this occurred when an Irish priest was appointed pastor to the nearby parish of Portsmouth. A number of St. Malo Acadians expressed the feeling that the Irish bishop was sending the priest with the mission of "Anglicizing" them. Again, when the bishop initiated the establishment of Holy Name Societies throughout the diocese, there was suspicion : [153] "We are going to find out more about the Society's aims before joining."

As a rule, Americans are regarded as superior to the English of the Province in every respect, especially with regard to inventive and material success. A glamour surrounds such places as Boston and New York City, and a number of Lavallée Acadians who have moved to such cities enjoy high prestige and status when they return to the village for a visit. Lacking in the Americans, even as in the English, are the spiritual sensitiveness and refinements which the Acadians believe distinguish themselves. The Americans are thought to be materialists, and this feeling is used in two ways by the Acadians. On the one hand, efforts are made to attract American tourists by pointing to the "natural majesty" of the region and to the hospitality of its inhabitants.

On the other hand, American values regarding money and material goods, family life and marriage, sex and love-especially as these are known through movies and other mass media of communication-are decried by the leaders and elders as demoralizing to the people. A certain challenge is recognized, however, for economic success and well-being is one of the long-range Acadian goals, and it is hoped that this can be accomplished without the materialism represented by the behavior of Americans.

Another group in the Acadians' social environment, small but perceived as important beyond their numbers, are the Jews. Acadians have strong anti-Semitic sentiments, and Jews are considered as superior in material things-in this case, the superiority is very threatening‑but inferior in all other areas of life.

One persistent thread seems to run through the relations of Acadians with other groups : suspicion, perhaps related to their long-time minority position in an English socio-cultural environment. This suspicion is widely directed not only at people of other subcultures but also at institutions in authority positions over them. Some remarks of Acadians on this point are :

Acadians have always been suspicious of the Government, of strangers, of Dover policies in religious matters and, to a certain extent, of each other.

By nature, the Acadian is extremely suspicious. It is the greatest block to the expansion of the co-op movement in St. Malo.

[154]

The policy of the Acadians was to have the English forget them.... They developed a nature extremely cautious and suspicious, trying to avoid the attention of the authorities and wanting to be forgotten.

The Acadians are exceedingly cautious, are afraid to take risks, sometimes so much so that they will let a good opportunity go by.

About the only group toward whom the Lavallée and St. Malo Acadians ; appear not to have deep-seated suspicions and reservations are the Acadians of a nearby province. They are regarded as superior to the St. Malo people in all respects, for they are a large group, have three Acadian bishops, a strong Acadian school system, and a large number of well-established Acadian associations. Many Lavallée and St. Malo Acadians turn to them for example and guidance in the ethnic revival movement.

Acadian leadership must be developed.

The people of Lavallée stress the importance of maintaining and further developing their own leadership in local and national affairs. Recently, in addition to the traditional leadership of the priests, a number of secular leaders have arisen and become prominent in the business and professional life of the Municipality and County. As noted before, Lavallée as a community contributes by far the greatest number of men to both secular and religious associations of the parish, and the emphasis on training for leadership through practice is widespread in the community :

Today there are more people who have something to say in community affairs, and the leaders are not necessarily those with money or those with education. It depends much more on the individual qualities of the person. The priest belongs to a different system. In the past he had a more extended leadership which was not limited only to religious activities.

Plans for development of Acadian leadership include not only increased use of and support for College St. Jean-Eudes to produce more and better educated people but also more specialized training in other Maritime and Quebec universities. In addition it is hoped that there will be more French-speaking teachers in the public schools. The desire to have an Acadian bishop has been noted before.

[155]

There should be conformity to and respect for authority.

In general, to be conforming and law-abiding is highly valued in Lavallée. There is a difference, however, in the way "inside" and "outside" authority are regarded, and in conflicts involving the two, primary allegiance is to the former. An example of this distinction can be found in regard to government regulations concerning income taxes or hunting. Violations of such laws are not thought to be really reprehensible, for they are defined as being outside the realm of "proper" authority. The requirements of Acadian leaders are another matter, especially the parish priest. The religious system implants a general respect for authority, one which obtains in community and family life as well as in religion :

In some parishes, the laymen have more to say in the legal aspect of the organization of the church and in parochial organizations. Here, the parish priest decides how to spend the money, and nobody objects. This may be surprising to you and I am quite frank about it, but in my whole life I never heard strong criticism against the priests by the Acadians. In religious matters they listen to priests faithfully. Even in secular matters, they follow their advice.

Leaders must demonstrate their interest in the Acadian group.

The other side of the coin of submission to properly constituted authority is that leaders must show that they have the interests of the Acadians at heart. One can legitimately rebel against authority if it is perceived to be detrimental to the group. Many of the policies of the Irish bishop are thought to be in that category. If an Acadian is perceived as attempting to exalt himself at the expense of the group, this is censured. In brief, the sentiment is that one must watch leaders and evaluate their efforts, yet at the same time show deference.

Reactions to Provincial and Federal Government policies often take the form of resentment against authority felt not to be acting in the best interests of the Acadians. Targets may be such matters as failure in the repairing of public property, in technological assistance in times of change, and in the development of educational facilities. The Acadians are apt to consider themselves rejected.

Material success is highly desirable and can be achieved through work.

[156]

Although they disparage people whom they feel are interested only in material things (such as Americans), the Acadians place a high value on economic achievement. The necessary qualification here is that this success must be subordinated to religious considerations. As a rule, worldly success is thought to be within any normal individual's reach through hard work. The value of industry and application has long been an Acadian characteristic, first expressed perhaps in their patient building of an extensive system of dikes to reclaim land over 300 years ago. The sentiment is also manifested in the Acadian emphasis on self-sufficiency and economic independence.

Hard work is not the only means to success ; manual skills and education are also important, and so too the use of intelligent planning. Thus one sees a careful use of natural resources and migration to industrial centers where jobs are plentiful.

The scarcity of economic opportunity in and near the community produces mixed feelings in the people of Lavallée. There is a great emphasis on getting ahead in the community, but there is also recognition that the chances are limited. They exist, it is felt, and money can be made in the region if there is sufficient application of steady effort and careful planning. But by comparison with the old days, when the economy was less dependent on cash and communities were more self-sufficient, Acadians believe they have much less opportunity now for a satisfactory standard of living and that their primary source of wealth (timber) is not reconstituting itself as rapidly as needed, despite the application of conservation measures.

This position involves, of course, conceptions of what economic standards are to be accepted as adequate and stable. These have changed under, and as part of, the pervasive alterations in the modern urban and industrial culture of North America. The reluctant conclusion is being drawn that for material success it is better to leave, although the conclusion is at cross purposes with some of the other basic Acadian sentiments, such as love of home, relatives, and friends. This changed conception of adequacy can be seen in the following remarks :

There was a time that you could find a maid in each house. Now they either get married or go out of the place soon to work in a city. They do secretarial work, they work in factories, they sew-they earn what they need to live ... Educated girls, who are attending [157] [a convent in a large city] won't come back to the community to many a laborer or an uneducated man. They will come back if they do marry a professional who is established in the area. As François said, "You give them some education to send them away from you."

The Acadian educational system must be developed.

Closely allied to the sentiments concerning the development of indigenous leadership in Lavallée and St. Malo is another concerning the educational system. One of the main functions of education is seen as the preservation of the French language against the encroachments of English in daily business, in social contacts, in recreation, and particularly in the mass media. It is also seen as preserving in-group traditions and sentiments, the school being considered the scene of a test with such outside forces. Through persistent effort the Lavallée Acadians and those of other villages in St. Malo, are gradually getting from the Government what they want in the school system. This includes more use of French as the language of instruction, including textbooks written in French and the taking of Provincial examinations in that language. Acadian leaders strongly encourage this development and continually urge the young to acquire more and better education so they can successfully enter business and professional careers in their native region. The obvious desire is to enhance material success for the individuals as well as for the group, yet to keep the young people in the community and region.

Personal success should be shared with others.

As already indicated, the sentiment about material success is strong and widely held, but it is not an unqualified encouragement to be wealthy. In Lavallée, a man who is economically successful is expected to feel an obligation to return some of this to his relatives and friends and to the community as a whole. If he does not, he is sanctioned through expressions of jealousy and hostile gossip. One of the men we knew was a successful industrialist in Lavallée and he was expected by the community to enlarge his business even further, hire more employees, and support more of his fellow villagers when profits came his way. The greater economic success a person has, the more he is expected to share it with his family, his church, and his community.

Upward mobility in terms of social prestige and affluence are interpreted [158] in the context of group affiliation. A man's success, if it is of the right sort, reflects credit on his family, his community and church, and on his people, the Acadians as a whole, for it is recognized that he is a product of all these influences.

Religion is the most important thing in life.

In Lavallée, and all St. Malo, salvation of one's soul is the center of existence. This is achieved through participation in, and strong support of, the church. The present life is only brief ; the afterlife eternal. Therefore during the present, one must prepare for what is to come. Salvation is to be won only through the Roman Catholic Church-the "true church"-which received its authority directly from God. While strictly obeying the commandments, the individual receives guidance and help from the priests, who are intermediaries between God and man.

The pervasiveness of this sentiment is notable. Fundamental orientations toward virtually all events, for instance, are to be understood in these terms. As long as one is a good man or woman-respectful of the priest, religious, good-hearted as a husband or wife, loving as a father or mother, and community-minded as an Acadian-he will be spared from disaster. If disaster does come, this is interpreted as meaning that God not only punishes in the afterlife but sometimes also during this life. Thus, disasters can be a blessing and a way for a person to attain even more grace through overcoming adversity with faith,

All events and behavior of people tend to be seen in a spiritual framework. Statements such as : "In everything that we observe, there is God's hand" ; or "I tried to quit teaching three or four times. I am still in the profession. I suppose that Providence wanted me there" illustrate various applications of this sentiment. Economic cooperation is seen by many people in similar terms :

From my point of view, cooperation is based on religious principles. I maintain that the will to cooperate is not a social thing, but rather a religious thing. It is the will and determination to help one's brother, one's neighbors. To understand why we built such a wonderful monument to God [the stone church], you have to see the same religious principles that are operating in the cooperative movement.

Husband-wife relations are premised on the sacredness of the marriage [159] institution as laid down by God and interpreted by the church. The rearing of children is closely based on the religious directive that they must be guided toward being good Catholics. The large families themselves are also based on religious admonition. The emphasis which exists on human dignity and respect in all human relations, the proper use of talent with which one has been gifted-these too reflect the same "sacred" underpinning for most of life's patterns. Knitting much of this together is the permeating idea of Divine intervention making possible Acadian survival after the Dispersal.

Planning and working for long-range goals
is more important than being preoccupied with the present.

In terms of time orientation, the main things in life are long-range goals-such as the salvation of the soul, the economic bettering of the area, the preservation and expansion of the Acadian group-even though some of these are unlikely to be achieved by any individual during his lifetime. Planning for the good of one's children and grandchildren is stressed. Some family heads will buy woodland for each of the male children or reserve a portion of present holdings. The emphasis on education and long training is another example, as is the traditional Acadian thrift and nurturing of resources.

Perhaps an extreme instance of long-range planning is the Acadian aim of geographic expansion. Some leaders base much of their lives on the assumption that it is possible within the next hundred years to make the Maritime region into an area inhabited almost entirely by people of Acadian descent.

The "good man" is one who works hard and enjoys his job, is a fervent Catholic and fulfills religious duties, and participates in community activities.

Although some aspects of this sentiment have been noted before, the quality added here is that of balance. The "good man" in Lavallée is one who is rounded in his life and includes worthwhile and commendable behavior in religion, social interaction and recreation, family and community life, and material success.

Work is a moral activity, and a man is enjoined not only to do it but also to take pleasure and pride in it under almost any circumstance. This applies equally to the businessman, to the man working in the fields or the woods, to the woman who keeps house and raises [160] children. It applies to the laborer no less than to others, for digging ditches is considered an honorable way of earning a living. In some sense physical work ranks lower than other types, but it still retains respectability and honor, perhaps because of the pioneer past when all Acadians did manual labor. Life without work would be life without meaning to the Acadian, and people who try only to get as much money as possible while doing as little as they can are disparaged. To have wealth only is not sufficient for respect in Lavallée ; this wealth must have come through honest, sustained effort.

Being "neighborly" in this community means visiting one's relatives and friends as often as possible and developing ties which will enable a person to have confidence in his neighbors and fellow community members in times of crisis. This emphasis on smooth and polite social relationships is reinforced by religious directives, and patterns of social cohesion have developed to cope with disruptions. When a person has a strong disagreement with another, for instance, settlement will be approached through the services of a third party, so that face-to-face unpleasantness and the risk of still further rupture can be avoided. This is part of the sentiment regarding the desirability of getting along with people, of being peaceful and quiet, of doing one's social and religious duties faithfully.

New experiences and innovations
should be regarded with some caution.

The Lavallée people, like other Acadians, are a bit suspicious about accepting changes in their lives ; they want to try them out, see how they work, see how they will affect traditional patterns before giving wholehearted acceptance to a proposed change. If the alteration promises to make life more comfortable and increase material advantage, and if it is thought to be free from undue risks, it is apt to be accepted. But a period of waiting must precede change :

When we started the Credit Union nobody asked for a loan. They did not want to borrow because it was one of the many things that was not done around here. They were too proud to borrow. One day we had a meeting of the board of directors and the parish priest borrowed $50... The news got around. The example had been set.

But if the innovation seems to threaten to change the religious and ethical systems of the Acadians, it will be strongly resisted ; anything is [161] mistrusted if it enters into conflict with traditional practices and values. Many technological changes are perceived as "bad," for example, because they may induce people to move away from Lavallée, seriously endanger the natural resources of the area, quicken the pace of life, and undermine morals.

In effect, then, the Lavallée people are moderately conservative, screening and carefully watching a proposed change for its capacity to better conditions. But this sometimes leads to hesitation and vacillation when action is needed.