Previous Issues

This paper is concerned with the conflict that arose in an Egyptian Nubian village whose inhabitants were forced to relocate as a result of the Aswan Dam construction. Prior to the move, the village experienced much solidarity and structural equilibrium, but in relocating, the villagers had to find new processes of cultural and social adoption. Contradiction and opposition emerged from the struggle for power and authority and the legitimacy to use them, and consequently the value consensus upon which the political system depends become weakened. This research attempts to discover the social functions of this conflict, the structural factors that controlled it, and the resulting new social organization. It is based upon ethnographic material collected during successive to the village and interviews with Nubians.

The research concludes that in small communities the nature of social relations interferes in both the direction and function of conflict.