Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in the Beskid Borderland in Malopolska and Silesia

Abstract

The object of this article are behaviours, which a kind of repeating and periodicity are characteristic elements, as well as fixed schemes of procedure. They refer to an everyday life, and are connected with a house-keeping and investment works (building) undertaken within a homestead. Such activities were – and still are to some extend – implemented in cooperation with neighbours, family, becoming a way of life not only economic, but also socialising, social, and sometimes festive. In considering them, includ-ing the social exchange theory, the author shows the relationships and dependencies that exist between residents of the community. The forms of mutual assistance and cooperation, selected for this text, are a small fragment of a social life, however, the rules that govern them, especially in the past, had an impact on the whole of social life. The analysed material is derived from the ethnographic fieldwork carried out by the author in the area of the Beskid borderland in Silesia and Malopolska.