Violence and Youth Male Cultures in the Rural Rociety at the Beginning of the 20th Century: the Tierra de Campos

Abstract

In the next text, we analyze several violent expressions which were carried out by the rural young people at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly through the study of Criminal Judgments and taking the example of Tierra de Campos, a rural region in Castile and León (Spain). Here, as was the case for the majority of rural Spain at these years, the statistics show us that young people were the perpetrators of most of violent actions. However, we can see through a qualitative analysis how that violence was not related with politically motivations and socio-economic conflicts. On the contrary, this youth violence was motivated by cultural issues and mental concepts framed in the social relationships of everyday life, as the defence of values like honour −both collective and individual−, and especially its male variant, the manliness.