Egypt

Decline of Personal Networks

Because of the new opportunities of monetary income and the development of new patterns of consumption, village life in Egyptian rural areas has become more individualistic and characterized by a division of labor rather than by a communal effort toward subsistence. Family and community, which constituted the main social networks of the Egyptian individual until the 1980s, have since been complemented by newer associations, often made through education and work in the country as well as abroad. Villagers have become increasingly prone to show marks of social distinction, encouraged either by advancement in their (or their children's) education or by economic gains. They thus adopted a more Westernized lifestyle, where mud-brick houses have been replaced by red-brick houses with mass-produced appliances. Because of these household changes, village women have tended to have less social contact with each other, and their sphere of domestic work has become more internal to their own houses. Before the Westernized household became common, village women would often assist each other in the process of baking bread, which took place in the courtyard outside the house where the traditional oven was located. This practice has considerably diminished, although it still exists.

New means of production and consumption have not only modified relationships within families but also social relationships between families, promoting new forms of privacy and limiting the traditional spaces for social exchange among village inhabitants. Starting from the spread of television and radio down to the most recent technological developments, social exchange between villagers has been replaced by a more global-oriented attention. The creation of new markets and new schools, which are not necessarily located in the village where one lives, has shifted social networks from a village-based perspective to a more transvillage orientation. If this has proven liberating for individuals, [Page 239]it has also generated more insecurity about the future, as villagers perceive that their networks of mutual help and exchange have been modified and are not as closely knit as they used to be.

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