Difference between revisions of "Amici, amigos (Mediterranean and Latin America)"

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Amici, amigos (Mediterranean and Latin America) (view source)

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|style="font-size:1.1em;"| ''Amici and amigos'' are the Italian and Spanish words for'' friends'', which, in the Mediterranean and Latin America context, may indicate a specifically instrumentally use of friendship ties. Friendship is a recurring theme in social sciences and in sociology in particular. Some of the classic sociology authors have often delved into this topic closely connected to the question of basic interpersonal relations and of cohesion and solidarity amongst human beings. With reference to interest for the sociological as well as anthropological issue of friendship, first and foremost we ought to mention authors such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Simmel, Niklas Luhmann and not least Anthony Giddens, amongst others. All of these authors, who may be considered experts on this theme, share a decidedly occidental concept of friendship, i.e. that the emotional aspect is the primary characteristic of this relationship between two individuals. In his now classic text ''Runaway World '' (Giddens 1999: 61<ref>Giddens, Anthony. 1999. ''Runaway World: How Globalisation is reshaping our Lives''. New York: Routledge. </ref>), Giddens recently formulated the hypothesis that sexuality, love, relationships between parents and children as well as those between friends follow the same development models in the globalization process. In a possibly too optimistic or maximalist way, Giddens underscores that this evolution occurs “''almost everywhere''” (Bell and Coleman 1999: 1<ref>Bell, Sandra, Coleman Simon. 1999. ''The Anthropology of Friendship''. Oxford, New York: Berg. </ref>). This would imply that the Occident’s emotional friendship would become a universal phenomenon. Empirical evidence, however, suggests a rather different scenario since in specific societies this type of evolution is not observable or remains rather marginal because instrumental friendship, as defined by American anthropologist Eric J. Wolf with reference to Latin America and Central America in particular (Wolf 1968: 1 ff. <ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>), is predominant. In line with Eric J. Wolf, in this entry we will highlight how this type of informal dyadic relationship is very common also in Mediterranean societies, yet present also in specific African societies. Consequently, instrumental friendship cannot be regarded as a sociological exception or a mere ethnographic oddity. 
|style="font-size:1.1em;"| ''Amici and amigos'' are the Italian and Spanish words for'' friends'', which, in the Mediterranean and Latin America context, may indicate a specifically instrumentally use of friendship ties. Friendship is a recurring theme in social sciences and in sociology in particular. Some of the classic sociology authors have often delved into this topic closely connected to the question of basic interpersonal relations and of cohesion and solidarity amongst human beings. With reference to interest for the sociological as well as anthropological issue of friendship, first and foremost we ought to mention authors such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Simmel, Niklas Luhmann and not least Anthony Giddens, amongst others. All of these authors, who may be considered experts on this theme, share a decidedly occidental concept of friendship, i.e. that the emotional aspect is the primary characteristic of this relationship between two individuals.
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In his now classic text ''Runaway World '' (Giddens 1999: 61<ref>Giddens, Anthony. 1999. ''Runaway World: How Globalisation is reshaping our Lives''. New York: Routledge. </ref>), Giddens recently formulated the hypothesis that sexuality, love, relationships between parents and children as well as those between friends follow the same development models in the globalization process. In a possibly too optimistic or maximalist way, Giddens underscores that this evolution occurs “''almost everywhere''” (Bell and Coleman 1999: 1<ref>Bell, Sandra, Coleman Simon. 1999. ''The Anthropology of Friendship''. Oxford, New York: Berg. </ref>). This would imply that the Occident’s emotional friendship would become a universal phenomenon. Empirical evidence, however, suggests a rather different scenario since in specific societies this type of evolution is not observable or remains rather marginal because instrumental friendship, as defined by American anthropologist Eric J. Wolf with reference to Latin America and Central America in particular (Wolf 1968: 1 ff. <ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>), is predominant. In line with Eric J. Wolf, in this entry we will highlight how this type of informal dyadic relationship is very common also in Mediterranean societies, yet present also in specific African societies. Consequently, instrumental friendship cannot be regarded as a sociological exception or a mere ethnographic oddity. 
Before concentrating on the characteristics of instrumental friendship, the ones of emotional friendship need to be considered. In fact, instrumental friendship can only be defined by contrast with the emotional one (Wolf 1968: 10<ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>; Reina 1959: 44 ff. <ref>Reina, Ruben. 1959. ‘Two Patterns of Friendship in a Guatemalan Community’, ''American Anthropologist'', 61: 44-50. </ref>). The latter occurs when two individuals exchange intangible reciprocal favours: spiritual, moral, romantic, abstract, sentimental, psychological. Sociologically speaking, emotional friendship arises when two individuals help each other in specific cases in which one of them needs intangible, thus emotional support in specific situations of tension, stress or pressure from their community (Wolf 1968: 10<ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>). Thus, emotional friendship is a form of solidarity to avoid someone from feeling alone or neglected. In most cases, an emotional friendship is a private and intimate psychological relationship generally involving only two individuals. Instrumental friendship, instead, is a socially broader phenomenon since it has a more public quality (Wolf 1968: 12<ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>).  
Before concentrating on the characteristics of instrumental friendship, the ones of emotional friendship need to be considered. In fact, instrumental friendship can only be defined by contrast with the emotional one (Wolf 1968: 10<ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>; Reina 1959: 44 ff. <ref>Reina, Ruben. 1959. ‘Two Patterns of Friendship in a Guatemalan Community’, ''American Anthropologist'', 61: 44-50. </ref>). The latter occurs when two individuals exchange intangible reciprocal favours: spiritual, moral, romantic, abstract, sentimental, psychological. Sociologically speaking, emotional friendship arises when two individuals help each other in specific cases in which one of them needs intangible, thus emotional support in specific situations of tension, stress or pressure from their community (Wolf 1968: 10<ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>). Thus, emotional friendship is a form of solidarity to avoid someone from feeling alone or neglected. In most cases, an emotional friendship is a private and intimate psychological relationship generally involving only two individuals. Instrumental friendship, instead, is a socially broader phenomenon since it has a more public quality (Wolf 1968: 12<ref>Wolf, Eric R. 1968. ‘Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies’ in Banton, Michael (ed.), ''The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies'', London: Tavistock Publications: 1-22. </ref>).  


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