The Irish Countryman: An anthropological study

The materials in this book were first delivered in a course of lectures in 1936; essentially the first report on the results of the Harvard Irish Expedition. There are six lectures: interpretation of custom; countrymen at work; the family and the land; boys and men; shops, pubs and fairs; and the character and motivations of the people. As a whole, this is a functional study of the rural life, revealing how many seemingly unrelated aspects of country life are closely bound together by the ties of friendship and kinship.