The Hidden Life of Tirol

by Martha C. Ward

Split between the modern nations of Austria and Italy, the "Holy Land of Tirol" sits in the heart of the spectacular Alps, astride the mountain passes that link the edges of Europe. Tirol has some of the most accessible and integrated social traditions in the world. But the deeper meanings of life in the region remain hidden. Here, then, is an anthropological guidebook. The goal is to make sense of and explain how the history, geography, politics and the rootedness of community life fit together. The conventional categories of an ethnography are all religion, subsistence, marriage, land tenure, ethnicity, agro-pastoralism, folklore, and inheritance. But the viewpoint is the anthropologist is a fellow-traveler, taking readers on a tour in imagination to a region often visited but rarely understood or studied. The study of European folklife and cohesive communal societies such as this have particular relevance today. In a world where ethnic groups and class tensions dominate the news, The Hidden Life of Tirol is a story of how people worked out these differences.

222 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

About the author

Also writes as Martha Coonfield Ward.

Reviews

[Will Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and liked that the author did a good job of describing the life of a Tirolean peasant and how it has changed.

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for the anthropology class for that I took while studying in Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck is in Tirol, so this book was particularly interesting when I read it. I can't remember anything I learned by reading this book. I guess that means I didn't learn anything.