Traditions Food Transportation Language Clothing Art and Institutions Are Examples of a Persons
France
Orientation
Identification. French national identity is based on the historical origins of the nation in Celtic, Gallo-Roman, and Frankish cultures. The name "France" originally was used to refer to several peoples in the lower Rhineland. It gradually was introduced as a more widespread term to denote that territory, formerly known equally Gaul, after the Frankish invasion and the retreat of the Romans. The proper noun "Francia" was practical to diverse territorial units until the Centre Ages, when it came to signify the kingdom of the French sovereign. Regional identities, such equally Provencal and Breton have coexisted with political units of country control. The degree to which French republic is today a homogeneous nation is a highly contested topic. Political and linguistic unification, particularly through mass education, has been an ongoing project of nationalism. The immigrant population comes mainly from Portugal and northern Africa, although in that location has been increasing immigration from eastern Europe. French republic takes a highly assimilationist approach to its immigrant populations. The social position of Beurs (the children of North African immigrants) is an ongoing result. The population is divided by social class, political party amalgamation, generation, ethnicity, and region. Having had a significant rural population well into the twentieth century, the country continues to be marked by a rural-urban split.
Location and Geography. The French frequently refer to their nation equally a hexagon to describe its vi-sided shape, and this term is also a symbol for the land. Metropolitan France has an area of over 200,000 foursquare miles (518,000 square kilometers), making it the largest Western European nation. It covers 5 percent of the European continent. Paris is the capital and cultural center, long dominating the balance of the nation. The older provinces, now reconfigured in what are officially called regions, have played an important part in the nation's history. There are currently 20-two regions. The France includes four overseas departments ( départements d' outre-mer DOMs): French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion. These DOMs operate primarily as departments within the national system. At that place are ii territorial collectives: Mayotte and Saint Pierre-et-Miquelon. Overseas territories ( territoires d'outre-mer ) include French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis, and Futuna.
French republic borders Andorra, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, and Switzerland. While tied to the mainland of Europe, the country is open to the Atlantic to the west. It also has coasts on the Mediterranean Ocean to the s and the English language Channel to the northward. France has a large range of terrain and a varied climate and geography. The major mount ranges are the Alps in the eastward and the Pyrenees in the southwest. Each forms a natural purlieus with other nations. The Massif Key is a large mountainous plateau in the primal area, which includes the aboriginal volcanoes of the Auvergne region. While most of the country is in a temperate zone, the Mediterranean expanse is considered to have a subtropical climate. The four main rivers are the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhône. The winds that sweep beyond the territory have regional names and are connected to regional identity, the well-nigh famous being le Mistral in the Rhône valley.
Demography. In 1999, the population was 58,518,748. France has a low population density compared to other countries in Western Europe. In an attempt to keep the population up, family unit allowances are given to each family per child, with no income restriction. In that location is much population mobility from urban to rural areas and from region to
France
region. The population has more doubled since the mid-nineteenth century, when it was 28.iii million. The postal service–Earth War II period saw fertility increases in the French version of the infant blast, merely the birthrate began to drib in the early 1970s. Migration has added to the population. At the turn of the twentieth century and later World War I, migration accounted for half the total population growth.
Linguistic Amalgamation. The official language is French, which is by far the majority linguistic communication, having been imposed on the regional populations since the nineteenth century. Regional languages and dialects such as Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Basque, Alsatian, and Flemish are nonetheless in use, and some are taught in regional schools. The law of 11 January 1951 permitted the teaching of regional languages in regions in which they were in utilize. The most recent update of national language policy regarding education came in 1995, permitting the pedagogy of regional languages at the main and secondary levels. In all cases, this is voluntary for pupils.
The nation historically has been divided into two linguistic regions: that of the langue d'oeil to the n and that of the langue d'oc to the due south. National identity is closely identified with the French language. The purity of the language is officially protected by the Académie Française established past Cardinal Richelieu in the seventeenth century, whose 40 members rule over the inclusion of new words in the language. In 1966, the government instituted a further safeguard past establishing a commission on the French language whose role is to discourage borrowings from English and franglais (the combination of the ii languages). The Toubon law of 1994 mandates that French be spoken in all official, public spheres of life. The French state also has played a role in the protection of global francophonie. Then president François Mitterrand established the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie in 1984, which sponsors height meetings among French-speaking countries.
Symbolism. Numerous national symbols are associated with the French Revolution, which established the nation as a autonomous republic at the cease of the eighteenth century. They were further reinforced during the Tertiary Republic at the turn of the twentieth century. Known equally the tricoleur, the flag is blue, white, and red. White is associated with monarchy, blood-red with the republic, and blue with Charlemagne, Clovis, and other early on rulers. La Marseillaise became the official national anthem in 1946. It was written in Strasbourg in 1792 only became associated with Marseille when troops from that city entered Paris singing information technology on 30 July 1792. It was an of import rallying song during the First Republic but was not used on official occasions again until the Third Republic. The Gallic rooster ( le coq gaulois ) became associated with the nation during the Renaissance. It was used at starting time as a royal symbol but during the revolution came to stand for the identity of the nation. Used variously over fourth dimension and sometimes associated with the effigy of Liberty or Marianne, the rooster came to exist known as a symbol of the nation during Globe War I. Today it is often used past sports teams.
Marianne is a symbol of the democracy every bit a motherland and stands for the rallying weep of "liberty, equality, fraternity." Marianne became an official national symbol during the Third Republic, although this female person figure developed out of female person symbols dating back to the revolutionary period. There are multiple ways of depicting this figure. Statues and images take portrayed Marianne as wearing a helmet and at other times the Phrygian bonnet; during the Tertiary Republic, she began to exist seen wearing a crown of ripe wheat. Since the nineteenth century, mayors accept deputed a sculpture of Marianne for their town halls. Now these busts draw popular models, the first of whom was Brigitte Bardot. The most contempo model, called in 1999 after much discussion and debate, is the actress Laetitia Casta.
History and Ethnic Relations
Emergence of the Nation. The emergence of the modernistic nation took identify over several centuries and resulted from a combination of the cultural influences of Gauls, Romans, and Franks. French republic was inhabited mainly by the Gauls, a Celtic-language group, when the Roman conquest of the territory began in the first century B.C.East. : The Gallo-Roman flow ended when the Frankish peoples began to enter the territory from the Germanic eastward during the fifth century, led past Clovis.
The term "France" comes from the Franks and has had three historical meanings. It referred to the area around Paris; the Île-de-France region, which was originally a duchy; and the area known as the kingdom of France, ruled by Hugh Capet and his descendants. The Treaty of Verdun in 843 established the kingdom of "Western Francia" when land was divided between the heirs of Charlemagne'due south son, Louis the Pious. The medieval period was one of political fragmentation fifty-fifty as the state administrative bureaucracy grew. The Church supported the various monarchs, who claimed divine rule. After a long series of wars, France achieved political unity in the sixteenth century under Louis XIV. French became the official language, replacing Latin in official documents, in 1539. The revolution of 1789 established the First Democracy and abolished the monarchy. Attempts to form the First and Second Empires by Napoleon and his nephew eventually were over-turned past the Third Democracy (1870–1940). This period involved a heightened sense of national identity, with a render to the republican values of the revolution. It was as well a period of heightened colonial expansion into Africa and Asia. During World State of war II, with the German language occupation and the Vichy government under Pétain, there was a crisis of national identity and a move toward rejection of the ideals of the revolution. A Fourth Commonwealth was reconstituted later on liberation at the end of the war, and this led to the electric current 5th Democracy, whose first president was Charles de Gaulle, elected in 1958.
Le Puy lies in the volcanic mountains of south-central France.
French republic experienced a menstruum of economic prosperity after World War 2 known as the "30 glorious years." This was too a time of rural exodus, expanded urbanization, and of import socio-cultural changes. The events of May 1968 marked a crisis in national identity as workers and students agitated for a more open and equal society.
National Identity. National identity is connected to notions of citizenship, which were established during the revolution. The original criteria included factors such as gender, place of nativity, historic period, and amount of belongings. Citizenship currently depends on proof of parentage and residence. The national identity is based on several factors, including a concept of shared ancestry coming from the Gallic and Frankish by and territorial roots in the countryside, a shared national linguistic communication and civilization, and the ideals of the revolution. Information technology has also been shaped by religious conflicts between Catholics, Protestants, and Jews and by religious versus secular influences on authorities, especially in the realm of education. Electric current national identity is primarily an invention of the Third Republic and has been shaken past various events in recent history. The degree to which a coherent national identity has existed is debatable despite the assimilationist policies of the government. Linguistic unity was accomplished less than a century ago, and regional languages and cultural practices persist. The growth of the European Marriage (EU) and the influx of immigrants eventually volition lead to a revised view of what it means to exist French.
An important element of national identity is the identity card. Each person on French soil must behave on his or her person a carte or document that demonstrates citizenship or some other legal status, such every bit a visa or EU passport. The police have the right to stop anyone at any time to need to see these documents.
Indigenous Relations. In a multiethnic state, there are 2 major types of indigenous grouping identity: that which is associated with territorial groups claiming a divide identity from the dominant French identity and that which is associated with immigrants, such as North Africans. Conflict between the centralized state and regional groups such as the Corsicans, Bretons, and Basques heightened toward the end of the twentieth century, when political autonomy became a major movement. Corsica has won the correct to limited administrative autonomy.
About four.5 1000000 foreigners live in France. These immigrants take come from diverse nations. The country has offered political asylum to peoples such as Cambodians and Czechs. The largest immigrant groups are the Portuguese, Algerians, Moroccans, Spanish, Italians, and Tunisians. One of the most significant conflicts has been in the surface area of religious freedom for Islamic groups. The "scarf affair" of 1989, in which 3 Muslim girls were expelled from high school because they refused to take off their head scarves, drew attention to the disharmonize between the secular state schoolhouse system and the religious behavior of immigrants.
Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space
There has long been a dichotomy between Paris and the residuum of the nation or between Paris and the provinces. Paris is by far the major urban center, with Lyon following. Not until the 1960s did the urban population surpass the rural population. Four-fifths of the population now lives in urban areas. More than half the urban population lives in suburbs, notwithstanding. A motion of population dorsum to rural areas, if not back to farming, has existed since the 1970s. Only 3 percent of the population is employed in agriculture. Regions and cities are linked through an extensive rails system controlled by Societé Nationale des Chemins de Fer de France (SNCF). It is headquartered in Paris, with twenty-iii regional areas. High-speed trains (TGV) link Paris with Lyons, Bordeaux, Calais, Strasbourg, and Montpellier/Marseille-Lyon. Paris is at present linked through the English language Channel tunnel to the United Kingdom. Several major highways built during the last few decades have improved motility by car.
Architecture ranges from the grand works of the powerful in the cities, such as the Versailles palace and the new National Library in Paris, to the vernacular compages of rural areas. Buildings dating from the flow of state building in the Third Republic are specially symbolic of nationalism. The architecture of public primary schools built at the turn of the century in small towns and villages symbolizes the presence of the nation-state at the local level. These buildings also house the mayor'southward function. Churches symbolize the power of the Catholic Church building, from Notre Dame in Paris to the village churches whose steeples once dominated the countryside. Colloquial rural architecture varies from region to region, reflecting climate, family unit forms, and cultural values. Just equally each local region had a local dialect, it had its own fashion of barns and houses.
The use of infinite in rural areas varies considerably. There is a stark dissimilarity between the s, where in that location is more than open socializing outdoors and in cafés and a stricter gender division of spatial use, and the north, where there is less of an accent on these factors. In southern areas, where men tend to associate in cafés or in the town square, married women were traditionally not present in such public spheres but were confined to the household. Beyond the country, however, there is a potent emphasis on privacy within the walls of the firm or foyer . Personal infinite and intimacy are connected, and shut friends and relatives have much closeness and physical contact. Acquaintances and intimates are distinguished, and a high degree of formality is used with acquaintances.
Nutrient and Economic system
Food in Daily Life. Food plays a major role in the state's social life. Vino and cheese are sources of national pride and reflect regional differences. Meals are ritualized, and full of social and cultural meaning. There are also political aspects to the significant of food. For instance, at that place has recently been much business organisation virtually the quality of "engineered" food and a rejection of foods that take been genetically altered. Some other recent business concern has been la vache folle (mad cow disease); the French have rejected the importation of English beefiness, which has been a major issue in the European union.
Breton girls in costumes for a festival. Each district generally holds a festival during the year.
The three main meals are le petit déjeuner (intermission-fast), le déjeuner (tiffin), and le dîner (dinner). Although the midday meal had corking importance in an agricultural economy and is still the chief meal in rural areas, in that location is a tendency for families to swallow the largest meal in the evening. Breakfast is a light repast of bread, cereal, yogurt, and coffee or hot chocolate. Lunch and dinner generally involve several courses, at minimum a offset course ( 50'entree ) and a main dish ( le plat ), followed by cheese and/or dessert. In restaurants, information technology is mutual to have a toll that includes all these courses, with a choice of dishes. Children swallow a snack after school, le goûter or quatre-heures, which usually includes cookies, breadstuff and jam or chocolate, and a drinkable.
Meals involve a succession of courses eaten 1 at a time. A typical family unit meal starts with a soup, followed by vegetables and a meat dish and and so a salad, cheese, and dessert. Wine is usually served at meals. Children begin to drink wine during family dinners in their early teens, often drinking wine diluted with water. Near daily nutrient preparation is done by wives and mothers in family settings even if both spouses piece of work total-time. The need to prepare wholesome meals that reverberate traditional values is an increasing source of stress for working women who feel pressed for time. Convenience foods are becoming more prevalent, and fast food is a growing trend.
Food Community at Ceremonial Occasions. Large family gatherings and dinner parties involve more elaborate food preparation and more courses than daily family unit meals. At such occasions, drinkable is more important. An apéritif is served with small snacks or appetizers earlier the meal. Different regions take particular apéritifs : pastis is associated with southern French republic, and Suze (gentian liqueur) with the Auvergne. Wines complement the courses. Champagne oftentimes is served to marking ceremonial occasions and is drunk afterwards the meal. This is followed by coffee and a digestif (liqueur). Information technology is not uncommon for ceremonial meals to terminal three or more than hours. In Normandy, a tradition that involves having a drink of calvados after each course farther lengthens the meal.
Holidays are associated with special foods. Elaborate meals are served on Christmas Eve by Catholic families who attend midnight Mass. These meals involve salmon, oysters, turkey, and la bûche de noël cake. In many regions, crêpes are eaten on two February, the Feast of the Virgin. The ceremonial nature and symbolism of food are axiomatic in rural wedding ceremony ceremonies. Often, mixtures of food and drink are presented to the wedding couple in a bedroom pot in the early hours of the morning after the wedding. These mixtures can include champagne and chocolate or savory soups with carrots and onion.
In many rural regions, it is nonetheless mutual for families to slaughter a pig each winter and make sausages, patés, hams, roasts, and chops for freezing. These are ceremonial occasions, and each person who helps the family unit is given a portion of the pig.
Basic Economic system. The "thirty glorious years" of expansion of industry after Globe State of war 2 concluded with the oil crises of the 1970s. Since then, the state has rebuilt its economy and has ane of the four leading economies in Western Europe. Virtually of the gross national product (GNP) comes from services, with industry generating one fourth of the GNP. France is also a major agricultural nation and is self-sufficient in this sector. Agronomics now accounts for less than three per centum of the GNP, all the same. The major agronomical ingather is wheat. High unemployment has plagued the land since the 1970s, particularly amidst youth. The unemployment rate was nigh 13 percent in 1997. Inclusion in the EU has had a major impact on the economy, opening some markets and restricting others. In 2002, French republic will catechumen from the franc to the euro for all financial transactions. Afterward several decades of nationalization of major industries, France deregulated those sectors in the 1990s, to create a freer market.
State Tenure and Belongings. Until the middle of the twentieth century, agriculture was dominated by modest holdings and family farms. Ii factors have affected rural land holdings since World War II. There has been an acceleration of the rural exodus leading to a stiff migration toward cities, forth with a consolidation of farm lands that had been scattered through inheritance patterns. This was called le remembrement and was more successful in some regions than in others.
Commercial Activities. There are many small businesses and shops on city streets, and street markets thrive in the major cities. In the centers of towns, small shops and specialty boutiques abound. Nevertheless, at that place are also large hypermarchés or grandes surfaces at the outskirts of most cities that sell food, clothing, and piece of furniture. Prices are fixed in stores for the most part, only at markets in that location is still a lot of bargaining. The commercial services of rural villages have declined during the last twenty years, every bit a result of depopulation and the attraction of new chain stores. Increasingly, the butchers, bakers, and grocers have closed shop, and people make purchases in small shopping markets or travel to the nearest city to purchase less expensive appurtenances.
Major Industries. Industry historically was centered in the northeast and eastern role of the nation, primarily in Paris, Lille, and Lyon. This has changed with the penetration of manufacture into the hinterlands and the due south. The leading industries are steel, machinery, chemicals, automobiles, metallurgy, helmsmanship, electronics, mining, and textiles. Tourism is a growing manufacture in the countryside. Food processing and agribusiness are of import to the national economy. The authorities controls several industrial sectors, including railroads, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication. A move toward privatizing these industries has been under way since the early 1990s.
Trade. Although the country traditionally took a protectionist stance toward trade and did not play a major role in the globe economy, this has changed with the opening of markets through the European Economic Community and the Common Market. Strange trade grew during the 1950s, under de Gaulle, and by the mid-1960s, French republic was the fourth largest exporter in the earth. Most exports
Men working at a vineyard in France. French wine is a source of national pride and an important part of both unproblematic and elaborate meals.
today go to Europe rather than to former colonies. During the economical crisis of the 1980s, the balance of trade favored imports, just in recent years exports accept grown. The major exports are manufactured appurtenances, including cars and luxury items such equally wear, perfume, and jewelry. Wheat and dairy products are also major exports. The country imports raw materials such equally oil and agronomical products, also equally machinery, chemicals, and iron and steel products.
Division of Labor. Employment is categorized by the eight PCS (professions and socioprofessional categories): farmers; artisans, minor shopkeepers, and small concern managers; professionals; middle management; white-collar workers; manual workers; unemployed persons who have never worked; and military personnel. While the nation had a large agricultural population well into the twentieth century, only three per centum of the people now work in that sector, although 10 percent of the population works in either agriculture or agribusiness. Unemployment (almost 12 percent in 1998) is college amidst women and youth. Labor unions are strong. The current xxx-nine-hour workweek will fall to thirty-v hours in 2002.
Social Stratification
Classes and Castes. French republic is a class-stratified gild whose center class did non develop significantly until the 1960s. Historically, society was divided among the nobility, the bourgeoisie , the peasants, and the urban proletariat. The French system was the ground for much of Karl Marx's analysis of class struggles during the nineteenth century. The dominant form now is referred to as the bourgeoisie, although this term is hard to define. Primarily, this class is considered to be the group that controls education and manufacture. A major source of debate is the result of social mobility for people of different social origins. Statistics indicate that in that location is still a strong tendency for children to remain in the occupational form of their parents. For example, in 1994, virtually 50 pct of the children of workers became workers; only 9 percent of them became elite workers. 50-half-dozen percent of the children of aristocracy workers became elite workers. The schoolhouse system is blamed for the lack of social mobility.
Symbols of Social Stratification. Social stratification has two master axes: urban versus rural and economical course position. The urban upper class generally has ties to provincial seats of power. The bourgeoisie establish the major tenets of good taste and refinement, of being "civilized." One's taste in music, art, nutrient, and leisure activities generally reveals 1'due south social course origins. Symbols of a college class position include knowing not just about fine art simply nearly the newest trends in avant-garde art, understanding and being able to purchase fine wines, and dressing with understatement while revealing refined aesthetic sensibilities. Course consciousness is very strong. "Symbolic capital" plays a large office in social grade, and non merely wealth but family connections and lifestyle determine one's social position and opportunities.
Political Life
Government. French republic operates under the constitution of the Fifth Republic, which was established in 1958. The authorities is highly centralized, although the 1982 act of decentralization transferred more than power to the regions and communes. Paris is the capital metropolis. The administration of the governmental organisation is organized through the levels of nation, region, department, arrondissement, canton, and commune. The district is the smallest authoritative level. This system of political assistants dates back to the French Revolution. The land controls several land-owned companies in the areas of transportation, energy, and communications. Thirty pct of the workforce is employed past the state. The country hierarchy is circuitous and is run by an administrative elite trained at the National Schoolhouse of Assistants (ENA).
The executive branch includes the president and the prime minister. The president is elected for a seven-year term by popular vote. The prime number minister is appointed by the president and serves every bit head of the authorities. In recent years, a form of political "cohabitation" has developed, in which the president and prime minister come up from dissimilar political parties. The prime government minister selects the ministers and secretaries of country, with approving by the president. Legislative power resides in a bicameral parliament composed of the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly) and the Senat (Senate). The deputies of the Assemblée Nationale are elected by popular vote for 5-twelvemonth terms; senators are elected though an electoral college arrangement for ix-twelvemonth terms.
The twenty-2 metropolitan regions, which recently received a formal part in government, are each equanimous of several departments. A region is headed past a regional prefect and served past elected regional council members who represent the departments. The regional council elects a president of the council. The department is headed by a prefect, and each county elects a council member to serve at that level. Communes elect a mayor and a municipal council. In that location are a little over 36,000 communes, and their populations can range in size from under one thousand to that of a large city. The vast majority of communes are in the countryside.
Leadership and Political Officials. France is politically divided between the right and the left. There are v major political parties. To the far right is the Front National (FN), which has been growing in ability since the 1980s under the leadership of Jean-Marie Le Pen. The two major parties on the democratic right are the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) founded past Jacques Chirac in 1976 and the Union cascade la Democratie Française (UDF) founded past Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1978. On the left, in that location is the Parti Socialiste (PS) and the Parti Communiste Française (PCF). In 1981, the PS replaced the earlier SFIO, led by François Mitterrand. The Communist Political party was formed in 1920.
Political leaders rise to power by gaining ballot at the local level, and then accruing more political titles. Information technology is possible for a pol to hold more than one role at different levels simultaneously, and this is a common method for gaining political support. Election to office depends on social networks, every bit well every bit on the personal charisma of the politician. The concept of "legitimacy" is crucial; to be viewed as a legitimate candidate is to take local roots and a strong social network. A successful politico must brand good use of symbolism and ritual in order to embody various ideals. A loftier degree of formality is associated with political office, and interactions with elected officials require correct etiquette. One should, for instance, accost a mayor as Monsieur or Madame le Mayor.
Social Problems and Control. The constabulary are a noticeable presence, particularly in urban areas and transport centers such as airports and subway stations. Visibly armed, they have the right to stop any person to demand to meet documents of identity. The police force forcefulness is divided between those who work for the minister of the interior and those who work for the minister of defense ( gendarmes ). There is also a National Security Police force (CRS) that is called in during demonstrations and strikes, which occur oft. An important form of political protest, demonstrations oft disrupt urban streets and highways. Labor unions are potent, and hit workers regularly stop social services, such as trash pickup and public transportation, and access to public buildings, such as museums.
People at an outdoor café in French republic. Cafés are social centers for men in southern France and are also popular among tourists.
Major social bug include AIDS, homelessness, and terrorism. The rate of violent crimes such as homicide is low. Terrorist attacks and bombings occur randomly, if infrequently and were at their superlative most recently during the Gulf State of war. The National Security Police justify their stiff armed services presence as a deterrent to terrorism.
Military Activeness. The president is the commander in primary of the military, and the government minister of defense reports directly to the president. France has an army, navy, and air force. It also contributes to the Un armed services forces and is in the NATO alliance, although its relationship to NATO has been precarious at times. French republic was involved in several armed conflicts during the twentieth century. Later on the first and second world wars, it was involved in colonial wars in Algeria and Indochina. The draft is being phased out and will disappear in 2002. Universal compulsory military machine service for a period of at least xvi months has been mandatory for all eighteen-yr-old males and marked an important rite of passage into machismo.
Social Welfare and Change Programs
There is an elaborate social welfare program. The social security organization was formed in 1946. Information technology is funded non by the state but by employers and workers directly. There are several plans, which vary with one's level of employment and professional status. A minimum level of income is assured for the unemployed and destitute nether the RMI (Revenue Minimum d'Insertin), the unemployment assistance payment that is paid for through taxation. Benefits of the social security system include family allowances (paid per child), infant allowances for significant women and newborns, single-parent supplements, benefits for sickness and disability, and unemployment insurance.
Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations
Nearly one-half the people belong to a voluntary association, including political parties, and there are 800,000 associations. The 1901 Constabulary of Associations regulates noneconomic activities such as sports clubs, cultural groups, and other clubs. There are clubs for immigrants, the elderly, youth, and leisure activities. Much of civic life is organized through associations.
Gender Roles and Statuses
Segmentation of Labor by Gender. Peasant households traditionally had a strict gender division of labor
Architectural view of Pierrefont Castle, a reminder of the wars that accept punctuated French history.
that was incorporated into community life, with the family farm being both a kinship unit and an economic unit. Husband and married woman generally worked together, sometimes participating in dissimilar tasks related to agricultural labor. The caste to which gender segregation in daily life was upheld varied by region. In general, women carried out domestic tasks of housekeeping, food preparation, and child care; however, they also were involved in farm labor, such as harvesting and disposed young animals. With the growth of industrialization, family farms involved much less cooperation between married man and wife in economical activities. A separation of the domestic sphere from the place of work and the growth of wage earning changed the household sectionalization of labor. Women worked outside the home as washerwomen, mill workers, and domestics. In conservative families in the nineteenth century, husbands controlled wealth and their wives were dependent on them, having limited autonomy in the raising of the children. Today, virtually half of all workers are female and the dual-career family is becoming the norm. Women go along to face inequalities in the job market, with lower wages than men for comparable work and more difficult career paths. Women are rare in the highest-paid professions and dominate in clerical piece of work, social work, and primary teaching. There have been proposals for a "maternal wage" that would recoup housewives for their labor.
The Relative Status of Women and Men. The Napoleonic Code of 1803 denied power to women in marriage, and women did not gain the correct to vote until 1944. Simply in the 1960s did wives gain the correct to open up bank accounts or work without the husband's permission. The Badinter Police force of 1985 established equal rights for women in marriage. The feminist movement has slowly fabricated advances but continues to struggle. The caste to which farm women take lower condition than males is a subject of fence. Economic and cultural factors influence the ability of women at the level of the family and community.
Marriage, Family, and Kinship
Marriage. Marriage rates and age at spousal relationship are related to socioeconomic course and region. Overall, the marriage rate is failing and the historic period at marriage is ascent. The boilerplate age of marriage for men is twenty-nine, and that for women is twenty-seven. Women tend to marry later on when they seek higher instruction. Rural male celibacy has been associated with rural-urban migration since the 1960s. Geographic homogamy is a strong factor in union: Over half of all marriages involve partners from the same section. There is also a high level of religious homogamy. The divorce rate has increased in contempo years, especially since a 1975 police force that made the process easier and faster. One in three marriages ends in divorce. All marriages are sanctioned by a civil ceremony in the boondocks hall. Religious ceremonies must follow the ceremonious ceremony, so that frequently wedding parties brand the trip between mayor's function and the church. Payment for the weddings of young people is most often divided equally between the families of the helpmate and the groom. There has been a rise in cohabitation for unmarried couples. A contempo constabulary permitting legal unions that are not marriages for couples has given legal status to cohabitating couples, including homosexual couples. The PACS ( pacte d'association civile et solidaire ) police, passed in 1999, set an intermediate matrimony between marriage and cohabitation. A pacte is easier to dissolve than a marriage.
Domestic Unit of measurement. The basic domestic unit is chosen le ménage . This includes all persons living in the same dwelling. These persons are not necessarily related. There has been a ascension in single-person households since the 1960s. In 1997, 18 percent of all households were composed of single women, and 12 percent of unmarried men. Nigh households, however, are composed of couples with (35 percent) or without (28 percent) children. There were three types of domestic units traditionally: the patriarchal family, the stalk family, and the nuclear family, which predominates today. In the patriarchal family unit (a rural model that was prevalent in parts of fundamental France), siblings stayed at dwelling house and their spouses joined the household. These big families owned belongings jointly. In the more hierarchical stem family unit, which was the virtually common, there was a blueprint of primogeniture. The eldest son would remain in the parental home, but daughters and younger sons were obliged to seek their fortunes elsewhere. That pattern persists in some rural communities, although primogeniture has been illegal since 1804 under the Napoleonic Code. Ane sibling takes over the farm but "pays off" the parts of the patrimony due to his or her siblings. The nuclear family was near prevalent in southern France and has a more than egalitarian basis than the stem family. A young couple would exist established in their ain household past both sets of parents.
Inheritance. I of the major functions of the domestic unit of measurement is the transmission of property to children. Inheritance involves material and symbolic goods. Almost holding is held in the form of immovable appurtenances such as buildings and country. Social inequalities are perpetuated through unequal access to inheritances amongst members of different families. Inheritance occurs non just at the death of the parents but at marriage or the setting up of a household for a young person, when loans or gifts are extended by parents. Inheritance also involves "cultural capital," including instruction, access to diverse lifestyles, and ways of speaking. Although the Napoleonic Civil Code established uniform regulation of inheritance and authority within the family and equal inheritance amid siblings, at that place are regional variations in the application of the law.
Kin Groups. Kinship is bilateral, with kindreds being recognized equally important units of social support. Kinship was historically more than important for the peasantry and suburbia than for workers or the petite bourgeoisie, who maintained neighborhood ties that were sometimes stronger than kin ties. Today the family unit plays a major role in transmitting cultural values, despite the decline in wedlock and increasing geographic mobility. Most people continue to live in the region in which they grew upwardly even if they move from a village to a city. Weekend visits to parents and grandparents are common. There is much diversity in the significant and force of kin ties across social class and indigenous lines. Ideologies of kinship, in which certain family forms are privileged over others, represent a critique of the kinship patterns of the working classes and immigrants.
Socialization
Infant Care. Infant care is done primarily by the mother, although fathers and female relatives participate. In the past, upper-form women sent their children to wet nurses until they were weaned. Children were swaddled with various methods, depending on the region. Baptism is an important familial celebration of the birth of an infant.
Child Rearing and Education. Land-sponsored schools for early childhood education begin to take children at the age of three. There are also state-subsidized child care centers for younger children. Although the influence of the family in babyhood socialization is very important, at that place are regional and class-based variations in the methods used. In general, children have been seen as naturally "wild" and in need of learning how to carry in the proper ("civilized") manner through guidance from adults. Peer socialization is as important every bit adult socialization, however, and children mostly develop a potent peer culture. There are both public, state-run schools and private (mostly Catholic) schools, which receive some country assistance if they follow the state curriculum. Public didactics was established equally mandatory, complimentary, and secular by the Ferry laws of the late nineteenth century. Education is controlled past the Ministry of Teaching and Research, with the exception of agricultural educational activity, which is under the Ministry of Agriculture. There are three levels of public schooling: the chief schoolhouse, the higher, and the lycee. Schooling is mandatory until age sixteen.
Higher Education. Students receive a college instruction afterward they accept completed secondary schooling and successfully taken ane of several examinations to earn a baccalaureat. Historically, higher education was divided betwixt universities and grandes écoles. Decentralization efforts have been under style to counter the domination of Paris over academic research and instruction. Provincial centers of learning have grown and received increased funding. About 10 percent of all students are foreign. With the growth of the European Marriage, educational activity initiatives have fostered partnerships betwixt French universities and universities in other European nations.
Etiquette
In French, " etiquette " means both "etiquette" and "anniversary." Social class distinctions determine the importance of various forms of correct social behavior. In general when people greet each other, they milk shake hands or comprehend with a kiss on both cheeks (called faire la bise ). Kissing is merely done when 2 people are shut friends or relatives. For the most part, the embrace is done only the offset time in a 24-hour interval in which one sees someone and is not repeated again until one says good-bye. At that place is besides formality in exact greetings, and then that one shows respect by adding "Madam," "Monsieur," or "Mademoiselle" to whatsoever greeting. At that place are important public and individual distinctions. In public spaces, one generally does non smile at strangers or brand eye contact with them (for instance, in the subway or bus) and should keep one's voice depression when speaking. Privacy is likewise maintained in homes, so that doors to bedrooms and bathrooms are kept airtight. When shopping in smaller stores, the buyer more often than not greets the proprietor upon entry, and the proprietor helps the client cull the goods to be purchased. It is less common to accept free access in a store, although the growth of large hypermarkets and shopping malls is irresolute this custom.
Faith
Religious Beliefs. France has been dominated by the influence of the Catholic Church, still the constitution declares it to be a "secular" country. Secularism does not reject organized religion only attempts to bar whatever single religion from gaining political control. The minister of the interior is also the government minister of religions, an office established to ensure the representation of various creeds. About 80 percent of the population is Roman Catholic. The 2d largest religion in terms of adherents is Islam. At that place are nearly a million Protestants; 700,000 Jews; and 200,000 Orthodox (Russian and Greek) Christians. There is likewise a meaning Buddhist population. About 15 percent of the population claims the status of a nonbeliever. Religious practice has diminished during the last l years, and less than 10 percent of the population attends religious services.
The authorization of Catholicism is historically linked to the conversion of Clovis in 496. In well-nigh of the country, communes began as parishes, and most rural villages run into the local church building as a symbol of local identity. The church bell rings to marker deaths, wars, and weddings. French history is marked by religious struggles between Catholics and Protestants, especially during the wars of organized religion in the sixteenth century. Many Protestants fled during the seventeenth century, when their religious rights were rescinded by Louis XIV.
The French Revolution in the eighteenth century was in office a reaction to the power and wealth of the Catholic Church. The 1905 law passed during the Third Republic officially separated church and state. The split between republicans, who supported a secular land, and antirepublicans, who were bourgeois and Catholic, was stiff at the local level in Catholic regions such equally Brittany during the turn of the century. Anti-Semitism is symbolized by the Dreyfus Matter, which was sparked at end of the nineteenth century past the imitation conviction for spying and imprisonment under a decease judgement of a Jewish army officeholder. This divided republican and antirepublican factions across the nation. Anti-Semitism was prevalent during the Vichy regime and has resurfaced with the neofascist Front National.
Folk religion varies by region. Witchcraft behavior persist in some regions, such as the Vendée. Many Cosmic regions combine elements of folk organized religion and Catholicism in their belief systems.
Religious Practitioners. Considering of the strong influence of the Cosmic Church building, priests are the most important religious practitioners at the local level.
Feature rock buildings in the village of Lot. Privacy is strongly valued in French households.
The village priest was historically a major presence in rural areas. The triad of priest, mayor, and schoolmaster was a feature of hamlet life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Strong anticlerical beliefs, particularly in southern areas, challenged this status. A shortage of priests has reached a crisis betoken. Reflecting this shortage as well as the decline in religious participation, few village churches hold regular services or have a hamlet priest. People must travel to towns for mass.
France has a variety of religious practices. Immigrants bring new forms of both established and folk religious practices to urban areas. For Muslim immigrants in particular, religious exercise is an of import manner to preserve one's identity in an assimilationist club. In rural areas, folk healers and diviners are consulted. New Age religions are thriving, and herbalists, massage healers, and other practitioners are growing in influence.
Rituals and Holy Places. France was the site of many pilgrimages during the Middle Ages. Most regions have celebrated churches that are visited regularly on holy days, with processions leading to them. Lourdes is one of the best known pilgrimage sites in the world. Located in the Pyrenees region in the southwest, it is visited by v million people each yr. In 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, at the grotto in Lourdes. This miracle inspires handicapped and sick people to visit this site and take the waters, which are believed to take healing qualities. Lourdes has a Web site where ane can hear the church bells and watch the visitors.
Death and the Afterlife. The Judeo-Christian tradition dominates beliefs about the afterlife, with heaven and hell playing a major part in the cosmology. In traditional rural areas, there was a fatalist approach to decease, and in many regions, such as Brittany, a "cult" of decease — particularly among older women. Funerals are of import events, cartoon from the entire community. The cemetery in France is a symbolic site of retentiveness, often visited past older female relatives who tend to family plots. Young children often accompany grandmothers for walks through cemeteries.
Medicine and Health Intendance
The French system of social security manages health care along with family allowances, retirement benefits, and unemployment. The national health system covers medical expenses and hospitalization for French citizens, and is run by a commission composed of representatives of employers and worker organizations. Most of the time, patients
Merely about iii percent of French republic'southward population is employed in agriculture, although people accept been moving back to rural areas to alive since the 1970s.
pay out of pocket for services or medications, and are then reimbursed according to a schedule of rates. Supplemental individual wellness insurance is purchased past many people. In that location are both public and private hospitals in France, with the latter charging college fees. The health care system is funded by social security payments taken from wages. Health care is very good in France, since most people take gratis access to it. Life expectancy is high—80.9 years for women and 72.7 for men.
Death resulting from complications of alcoholism remains a major gene in bloodshed rates in France, third afterward center illness and cancer. The major wellness issues in French republic in the past few decades take been AIDS ( SIDA ) and access to birth command. The charge per unit of AIDS in France ranks second afterwards the Usa among industrialized countries. The HIV virus was get-go identified at the Institut Louis Pasteur in Paris, a major scientific research establish.
The auction of nativity control and legalization of abortion came much later in France than in other industrialized nations. The function of the Cosmic Church in this is important, every bit is the influence of the women'due south movement on the changes in policy. Birth control was first permitted to be sold in 1967, and abortion did not become legal until 1975.
Secular Celebrations
France has several borough holidays ( jours feriés ), when schools, museums, and stores close. These public holidays, which include some with a religious origin, are: le Jour de l'An—1 January; May Solar day or Labor Twenty-four hour period—one May; World State of war II Victory Twenty-four hours—8 May; Easter (date varies); Ascent Day (later on Easter); Pentecost Monday; Bastille Twenty-four hour period—fourteen July; Assumption Mean solar day—15 Baronial; All Saints Solar day or Toussaint—1 Nov; Armistice Day—11 November; and Christmas—25 Dec. Along with Bastille Twenty-four hours, Armistice Day is the most patriotic of these holidays, marking the finish of World War I. There are speeches and parades in local communities involving local dignitaries and veterans, who identify a wreath on the war memorial.
Bastille Day is the most of import national vacation, celebrated in every commune with town dances, fireworks, and other festivities. On this day, in that location is a parade down the Champs-Elysée in Paris, involving the President and other dignitaries. Guardhouse Mean solar day marks the storming of the state prison, known as Guardhouse, by the citizens of Paris during the French Revolution. Known popularly equally the 14th of July ( le quatorze juillet ), Guardhouse Mean solar day celebrates the overthrow of monarchy and the beginnings of the France.
Each commune in France mostly holds a town festival during the year. In some regions, these comprise religious and secular symbolisms. There are dances, parades, sports competitions, and other activities.
The Arts and Humanities
Back up for the Arts. There is a corking deal of support for the arts in France at the state, regional, and municipal levels. The French Ministry of Culture funds artists as well as restoration projects and museums.
Literature. Oral traditions and folktales predominated in pre-modernistic French republic. Up until the mid-twentieth century, rural communities held veillées, in which neighbors gathered in someone's habitation around the hearth to trade stories and tales. French written literature is considered i of the greatest world traditions. The offset works of literature in French were the Chansons de Geste of the eleventh century, a series of epic poems. During the Renaissance, France's peachy national literature flourished with works by François Rabelais, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, and Pierre de Ronsard. Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau helped to shape a national consciousness during this time. Nineteenth-century writers took up themes of struggles betwixt social classes, clerical and anticlerical forces, and conservatives and liberals. They also developed a class of realist writing that charted the various regional differences, and urban-rural splits, in France. François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand, Madame de Staël, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), Honoréde Balzac, and Gustave Flaubert were the great novelists of this period. Poets included Charles-Pierre Baudelaire, Alphonse-Marie-Louis de Prat Lamartine, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, and Stéphane Mallarmé. Earlier twentieth century writers include Marcel Proust, Anatole French republic, Jules Romains, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, François Mauriac, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, and André-Georges Malraux. French existentialism during the postwar period is associated with writers Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir. The so-called "new novel" came to the fore in the 1950s and its representatives include Nathalie Sarraute and Alain Robbe-Grillet.
France gives several literary prizes each year. These include the Goncourt, the Renaudot, the Medicis, and the Femina.
Graphic Arts. France's nigh important graphic fine art forms are painting, sculpture, and compages. The prehistory of French fine art is also of import, including the famous cave paintings in southwestern French republic. The nineteenth century period of Romanticism in painting is associated with Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Auguste Ingres. Paintings of peasant life flourished during this century, particularly in the work of Jean Courbet and Jean-François Millet. Impressionism, in which colour and light became important, is associated with Claude Monet, (Jean) Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissaro, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and Morissette. Postimpressionism followed later in the century, with works by Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, and Pierre Bonnard. Great twentieth century painters include Georges Braque, and Jean Dubuffet. The most famous French sculptor is Auguste Rodin.
Performance Arts. Theater and dance have a strong tradition in France, both in the classical sense and in the realm of folklife. As in most of French republic'south cultural life, Paris dominates the grand traditions of theater. France's great dramatists include Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Molière, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas pere and fils, Jean Anouilh, and Jean Genet. The Comédie Française in Paris still presents the archetype works of Molière and Racine. Opera is also popular in France, cutting across social form. Street theater, pageants, and regional theatrical productions flourish in the provinces. The city of Toulouse is particularly well-known for its operation arts. French cinema is subsidized more highly by the land than other European moving-picture show industries, and the French take access to more than nationally-produced films than their neighbors. Many French cities concur picture show festivals during the year, the nigh famous being that in Cannes in early on summer.
The Land of the Concrete and Social Sciences
Most scientific research is supported and sponsored in France through the network of the CNRS (Center for National Inquiry). Scientific enquiry is also funded by the CNES (French National Space Agency) and INSERM (the National Institute for Wellness and Medical Research). France is amongst the four world leaders in scientific funding. The CNRS has funded many laboratories in which winners of Nobel prizes and Fields medal for mathematics accept worked. CNRS (including the research institutes it funds) and French universities are the major sources of back up for scientific research. Very often, professors and researchers at universities likewise accept appointments at CNRS. In that location is, nevertheless, a serial of exams that ane must pass in order to enter into the CNRS.
French ethnographic research in France is funded past the Mission du Patrimoine Ethnologique, which is office of the Ministry of Culture. The Mission participates in the journal Ethnologie Francaise and publishes its own periodical, Terrain. It likewise publishes books in association with the Maison des Sciences de 50'Homme, an institute for avant-garde inquiry in Paris. Another major site for the anthropology of France is LAIOS, the Anthropological Laboratory for the Written report of Institutions and Social Organizations in Paris.
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—D EBORAH R EED -D ANAHAY
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