Tradition and Modernity in the Mediterranean

The subject of Vassos Argyrou's study is modernization as reflected in the changing nature of wedding celebrations in Cyprus over two generations. He argues that modernization is not a secular progressive process that remodels the life of a society ironing out local differences. Rather it is an idiom--a legitimizing discourse--in which Cypriots represent and contest relationships among social classes old and young men and women city folk and villagers. At the same time by involving modernization they are submitting to foreign standards and accepting the symbolic domination of Europe.