[78,1976] observational or behavioral data, including no quantitative information o n marriage stability, is all t h e more debilitating since this latter problem consumes much of t h e study. Despite missionary efforts, Kwaya marriage over the years has remained tenuous due t o labor migration, urbanization, changing conceptions of husband and wife roles, and the like. As to the relationship between payment of large bridewealth and marriage stability, the author abandons us with the wholly unsatisfactory conclusion that he found "too many factors involved which, even with statistical figures, could not be fully measured and balanced against each other" (p. 1 7 4 ) .In reading a fieldwork monograph purporting to examine changing family and conjugal institutions, I remain frustrated and puzzled by the author's apparent indifference t o the actual behavior of real people. It has become fashionable in recent years to decry community studies as being part of an old-fashioned anthropology. We are urged, instead, t o study more complex situations such as regions or even entire nations. This latter course has its merits but t h e importance of community studies in Spain cannot yet be minimized. Social phenomena affecting the wider society can be analyzed in Spain only after we have sufficient base data from local communities. Given the paucity of community studies of Spanish pueblos, we must welcome Brandes' contribution as a valuable, if slightly flawed, piece of ethnographic work.
MigrationBecedes, the community studied, is in the west-central part of Spain in the province of Avila, some 206 km. from Madrid. It is situated in the Gredos Mountains, a cold area of high altitude, which has its effects upon agriculture and animal husbandry, t h e two major occupations of the village. Becedes is the village's real name; in previous writings Brandes used the psuedonym Navoganal, but after receiving approval from the villagers, he has fortunately been able to identify the village by its true name and thus make it easier for other students of Spanish life to go to t h e community to see it for themselves should they so desire.The title indicates that the book is a study of migration and kinship as they affect community structure and process. This is indeed covered but the bulk of the book contains t h e standard (although very useful) items commonly found in ethnographies. The data were gathered in 1969-70 and during the summer of 1972.Brandes' central argument is that social solidarity among the villagers has increased in t h e face of outmigration. Even family ties have become tighter, and this in a community (and society) where close familial relations have been both an ideal and a fact. Due in part t o the influence of returning emigrants and in part to t h e opening up of this part of Spain by mass communications media and expanded opportunities for travel, the people of Becedes have more alternative modes of behavior open to them. The book illustrates a number of such new modes that have come t o replace older mode...
