This essay, both an ethnography of an English village and a study of a hospice, demonstrates how people may be both highly sociable and philanthropic in the public domain and circumspect and reticent with regard to the private domain. Using historical evidence, the article also demonstrates that this characterization of English sociality may have held true for centuries. Changed are the consequences for elderly individuals, whose autonomy may now lead to isolation in their own homes.
展开▼
