Conflict, parochialism and social differentiation in Portuguese society.

The article examines certain patterns of conflict in Montemor, a peasant community in Portugal, in order to gain insight into certain aspects of the dynamics of the relationship between narrower and broader levels of a differentiated large-scale society. Distinctiveness between parishes was determined through such functions as tax collecting and local elections, as well as in terms of defining participants in common enterprises. Agents of the urban bureaucracies influenced the life of parish inhabitants. Several forms of conflict reaction observed in the parish are described.