Based on field research in eastern Finland not far from the Russian border, this book is an account of the main features of rural society in the area. It pays detailed attention to the adaptability of farming families in a rapidly changing world. Subjects treated include marriage and the family, work and mechanization, succession to farms, and the paradoxical combination of fierce individualism and co-operation. Two major themes of the book are the relation between law and custom, which is not always what it seems on the surface, and the complex interlocking of farm, family and the wider society.

‘… a formidable account of social relationships and social institutions, the kind of systematic sociology that is all too often neglected in contemporary ethnography … Abrahams is to be commeneded for producing a thought-provoking study …’.

Source: Man