Friendship, kinship and the life course in rural auvergne

In this chapter, the authors suggest that while the friendships may have significant emotional meanings for individuals, they have important social meanings with consequences for adults as well as for youth. Friendship and kinship are mutually reinforcing in Lavialle, and the strong peer bonds that are encouraged during youth provide incentives to maintain local social attachments that go beyond obligations to family or the desire to farm. Pierre Bourdieu has identified a salient feature of kinship and friendship in rural France in his discussions of the term cousiner. The act of cousiner means to activate social support and aid from among one’s kindred, as Bourdieu describes it, and implies an instrumental view of social ties. While studies of friendship that focus on individual emotional needs, viewing friendship as a compensatory’ form of social relationship, provide a valuable perspective on the meaning of friendship, there are important social meanings as well.