Jeremy F. Boissevain, a noted French anthropologist authored a book titled "Hal Farrug : A Village In Malta." Hal Farrug is a fictitious name, yet the publication represents a remarkable accurate account of two of Malta's cultural and social institutions; the family & the village, as they existed in the mid or late 1940's. Much has changed in the intervening half-century, more so in smaller villages which dot the island, than in cosmopolitan cities.
The general findings of Mr. Boissevain affirm the presence of a strong Arab legacy which still persists in Maltese life, favoring patriarchal domain in matters of family structure and succession. Maltese civil law is largely a marriage of Roman and Canon law. To a certain extent, Maltese law regards a married woman as a legal minor. Though divorce does not exist in Malta civil law provides for legal separation involving bed and board, return of dowry property to the wife, and division of property and goods acquired during marriage. Separated partners may not re-marry. The introduction of new legislation protecting the rights of women at home and at the workplace has evened out many social inequities taken for granted in the past.
Maltese view the family as the single most important institution in their lives, the building stone of society. The family has a spiritual function and is regarded as an organic part of the Catholic church. Not so many years back, marriage arrangements were entered between two families, bound by contractual, religious, moral, and economical obligations. Families of the same social status tended to marry their own kind, a system which perpetuated wealth, as well as poverty through successive generations.
Evidence of Arab culture in Malta, particularly within its poorer less educated segments of society, is seen in the intense interaction of family members. The husband/father's contribution is to provide food and shelter, often at the expense of emotional support. He has the ultimate authority to which all family members are subordinate. He represents the family to the outside world, though often actual control rests in the hands of the wife. Like the king of the jungle, rarely does a husband help with household chores or child rearing, tasks considered demeaning to his macho image. The wife/mother's primary role at home is to bear children (boys preferred) whom she is to tend and train in true Catholic fashion.
Persons feel closest to blood relatives, cognates of their parents, people who are of one blood (ta' demm wiehed). Distinctions are made between "immediate" family (qraba tal familja), "close" relatives (qraba ta' gewwa) and "distant" folks (qraba fil-boghod). The concept of extended family remains alive and well in Malta. Relatives are expected to visit and tend to each others' needs, give financial aid and when necessary share baptismal, engagement & wedding celebrations. Assistance rendered or refused is not forgotten. Help expected is largely determined by past performances. Sadly family life in Malta is experiencing the same levels of decline and stress found in other western countries. Family cohesion is being threatened by a declining influence of religious values and excessive parental permissiveness. Making matters worst, young impressionable people are constantly exposed to foreign television programs, particularly American, that portray the twin destructive evils of drugs and violence. The erosion of long held moral precepts seems irreversible.
A village in Malta is regarded as a collection of close knit kin. The village square in front of the parish church is the focal point of the religious, social, political and economical life of each village (Rahal). Church influence is stronger in village communities than in cities. The village priest serves as a religious leader, psychologist, family counselor, legal advisor and a person of vast encyclopedic knowledge and intellect, conveniently wrapped into one. Throughout its cities, towns and especially villages, religious ceremonies and observances are rich and complex. Entire families participate in an endless array of processions, displaying opulent papier-mâché holy statues of Christ, Mary and local saints, carried shoulder high by lay men through curved narrow streets. The elaborate pageants, with their contrasting loud colors, ear shattering church bells and marching bands, not unlike those found throughout Catholic countries in Latin America, are a sight to see for curious tourists.
Malta's population lives in the great urban agglomeration surrounding Valletta, the Grand Harbor and Sliema. There are marked differences in values, dress and speech between city and village dwellers. With few exceptions no doctors, lawyers, and businessmen live in villages, therefore no social differences exist. Everyone is treated as an equal, though in true human fashion some villagers regard themselves as more equal than others. World War II brought many changes to the inhabitants of Malta. Many villagers who were conscripted learned first hand the meaning of military discipline and the security of earning a regular cash income, compared to uncertain revenue formerly derived from agriculture. This shift in occupational skills and attitudes brought a profound change in the rhythm of village life. Villages are no longer the economic and social whole they were in years past. Exposure of lavish foreign lifestyles, through cable TV has eroded the relative isolation of village communities, bringing to an end the close contact people once enjoyed.
Today villages belong to the women and children, and to groups of older men gossiping on street corners, seeking out the sun in winter and shade during summer, playing an occasional local game of bocci. In ever growing numbers younger people who work outside their villages in large assembly plants, have become accustomed to a relatively higher standard of living. They are more aware of the increased potential technical skills and formal education bring them and their children. They wait for the day to escape the narrow confines of a vanishing way of life and become part of Malta's growing affluent society, living in urban areas.
Acknowledgment: Special thanks to Mr. Paul Spiteri of Troy, Michigan for his assist in making this article possible.
E-mail to Joseph Vella: vellajoseph@msn.net
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