Agrarian Myth

The Meaning of Myth

Myth does not refer to stories of fantasy or patent untruths. Rather, “myths express the collective mentality of any given age and provide patterns for human action” (Peterson 1990, p. 9). They are part of a people's historical self-identity. Hofstadter adds the proposition that myths become more pronounced the further they are removed from everyday reality. People like to cling to the identities they have created for themselves even if those identities no longer seem to fit. This is true for the agrarian myth.

The Origins of the Agrarian Myth

The origins of the agrarian myth in Western society are at least twofold: They include the Judeo-Christian tradition on the one hand and Roman philosophers and poets on the other.

In the Biblical book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise in Eden and told that they would now have to work for their food. They would have to raise it. Farming came to be associated with God's solution to humans' fall from grace. Paradise lost and the quest to regain it became part of Western culture and its perpetual quest for perfection. It centered on the perfectability of human beings through the perfecting of their institutions, most notably, their communities. Humans would regain their Eden in agricultural villages through farming.

After the end of the Punic wars (between Rome and Carthage) in 146 B.C.E., Roman agriculture began to shift from small to large holdings. Prominent war veterans were rewarded for their service with land. Smallscale farming had been viewed as a moral activity because Rome, though large and urban, was still predicated on agrarianism. Roman intellectuals constantly reminded people of this, typically making the connection on a moral basis, and as a result, the “gentleman farmer” became the rhetorical ideal. As many veterans began accumulating large amounts of land, requiring hired labor, farming became more connected with business. Small farmers were increasingly squeezed out. Roman poets decried the loss of the small farm and predicted ruinous results for Rome. Cato (234–149 B.C.E.) argued that “a well tended farm is a sign of good character” (Wolf 1987, p. 67). Varro (116–27 B.C.E.) was convinced that a simple rural life had made Rome great. The Augustinian poets (34 B.C.E.–17 CE) picked up the theme as well. Virgil (70–19 B.C.E.) credited [Page 28]Jove, the god of agriculture, with making farming hard, but he believed that therein was its virtue. And Horace (65–8 B.C.E.) compared country and city life, extolling the virtues of the former and arguing that “the rebirth of Rome and Roman citizens is at stake, and with it the hope of mankind” (Wolf 1987, p. 70).

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