Community Institutions in the Aragonese Pyrenees

Identifier:  PC:3483

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/PC3483

Authors:  Comas d¿Argemir, D

Abstract:
The Pyrenees region has important collective and community institutions. They are of immemorial origin and have persisted throughout history, despite the general triumph of private forms of territorial appropriation and despite having suffered different types of aggression that have contributed to the disappearance or denaturalization of some practices associated with such institutions. In this article we will make a presentation of the nature of the existing community institutions in the Pyrenees of Aragon and their articulation with private forms of property. We would also like to comment on how the most recent socio-economic transformations have led to the emergence of individual interest, which poses a new threat to community institutions. Finally, we will consider whether in the current conditions of the market system it would not be more logical to take advantage of the possibilities offered by community practices, instead of proceeding to an increasing atomisation of agricultural production. We do not want to leave out the fact that for this subject it is imperative to take into account the work of Joaquín Costa and, especially, his book Agricultural Collectivism in Spain, where there are abundant examples relating to the Aragonese Pyrenees.