Family and intergenerational solidarity
The family is the basic unit of island society, centralizing an important network of solidarity that fills a gap in care at national level, made even more acute by recent years of crisis and general mistrust of the central state. This is an age-old reality that was already prevalent in the traditional structures of the Dodecanese: isolated and faced with difficult living conditions, subject to numerous occupants, the islands developed a tradition of family mutual aid that still applies today. Within the family, it's mutual help between generations that counts. Every summer, many young adults return to their parents' island home to help out during the summer season. This system of economic solidarity enables them to earn a living while providing a service to the family.
The children are often king, and the adults show them great generosity and affection. Here again, this attitude is not limited to the inner circle, but is open to others: you'll notice it with your own children if you travel as a family. Symbols of a filiation that endures between generations, newborns are still mostly christened with their grandparents' first names, which explains why the same handful of names are often found on the islands. This is by no means an obligation, and young couples are seeing a resurgence in the fashion for antique first names.
Within the family, children are nurtured and showered with gifts and sweets. And even when their offspring have grown up, parents continue to spoil them with dishes prepared by Mum or an apartment bequeathed by Dad. On the one hand, this is all very well, because why spoil yourself? On the other hand, it's a terrible thing, because generations of young and old remain trapped in this permanent infantilization. And the love shown by force-feeding children results in one of the highest obesity rates in Europe. Another harmful aspect of this cumbersome love is that parents want their offspring to succeed at school at all costs. As a result, from primary school onwards, many children find themselves bogged down in evening classes - the dreaded frontistiria - on which families spend lavishly.
On the other side of life, when old age sets in, the grandparent is in turn taken care of by his or her children, who will help with food, clothing and shopping: our concept of a retirement home is causing quite a stir here! Retired people who have left their native island for all or part of their working lives usually return home to live out their later years in peace and quiet. Indeed, the village and the island of origin channel a strong attachment and the return to the native land often remains in the psyche of those who have left and wish to end their days there.
A sense of community and philoxenia
The sense of community extends beyond the family clan into the parea, or collective, community system. The parea refers to a group of friends formed through a shared experience (school, university, work...). But it's also broader than that, and can refer to a moment of conviviality: getting together as a community to party and have a good time. On the Dodecanese islands, this tradition is particularly popular, especially during the summer celebrations known as panigyria. These festivities, whether religious or not, are a great opportunity for sharing, and are part of the tradition of community and hospitality that characterizes these islands: if you travel to the Dodecanese during the summer months, you'll have the chance to take part in these great celebrations, for a taste of the sense of community and festivity that reigns on these islands.
This tradition of mutual aid and community helps to nurture a wider sense of solidarity. Philoxenia means "love of strangers" and refers to a highly developed sense of hospitality. It's a tradition that endures on the Dodecanese islands, despite the damaging effects of the tourism that has developed in recent years, which could have diluted it. In less touristy areas, you'll be invited to share a coffee or a glass, while restaurants continue to offer a sweet or a liqueur at the end of the meal. Philoxenia became almost a natural response to the influx of refugees from the Middle East back in 2015, making up for the lack of national and international response to this humanitarian crisis. Everywhere on the Dodecanese islands, individual and collective initiatives sprang up spontaneously to relieve migrants as best they could, multiplying gestures of solidarity despite the economic crisis, when others, with incomparably greater means, were and still are turning a deaf ear. Even if fatigue has set in over the years, and locals have sometimes expressed their anger in tense moments, islanders on the whole remain supportive of the people they welcome.
Heteronormative society and patriarchy
The role of women in the islands, and more generally in Greek society, is a complex reality that cannot be reduced to simplistic images of the woman subjugated by religion and tradition, or the woman liberated by modernity. Greek misogyny, like misogyny elsewhere in Europe, is an insidious part of women's lives. Patriarchy is everywhere: throughout their lives, in all administrative procedures, Greek citizens - male or female - are only recognized in relation to their fathers, while even modern wives remain almost legally non-existent in relation to their husbands, the father's representative once the woman is married. Women are considered to be the pillars of family life, which implies both a great deal of respect and, above all, many social obligations and constraints for those who must realize their potential within a family framework. So women are busy in the kitchen, looking after the youngest and the oldest, looking after everyone's well-being, without this caring role ever really being called into question. The island of Karpathos has enshrined this reality in a traditional matriarchal system: property and inheritance are passed down from mother to daughter, as witnessed by the small museum at Menetes.
The hetero-parental family unit remains indestructible in a country where the Orthodox religion is still very much in evidence: discussions on adoption by homosexual couples are still a long way off. Despite this, the country has seen historic advances under the government of Alexis Tsipras (Syriza), who passed the equivalent of the PACS in December 2015, even though Greece had been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for refusing to open up civil unions to same-sex couples. Against this backdrop, the island of Tilos has put its tradition of openness at the service of a progressive social policy, ahead of the rest of the country: as early as 2008, the island's mayor had been the first to celebrate a homosexual union in Greece. In October 2017, Syriza also passed a law allowing transgender citizens to change their gender on their civil status.
While same-sex marriage was within reach under Tsipras, the 2019 elections and the rise of the conservative right seemed to have halted this development, but in 2023, the new government K. Mitsotakis has revived the idea of passing the law, even if it's a very divisive move for the party. He could count on the support of the opposition Syriza, whose new leader, openly homosexual and married (in the USA), Stéfanos Kasselákis, represents a kind of salutary electroshock for Greek society. In February 2024, the Vouli - the Greek parliament - voted 176 to 76 in favor of marriage and adoption for same-sex couples.
As for heterosexual marriage, it is no longer seen as an obligation, and divorce is no longer frowned upon: cohabitation is becoming increasingly common, not least because weddings are expensive and young couples can no longer afford to organize large-scale festivities since the crisis. Indeed, it is customary to hold large weddings where everyone is invited, especially on small islands. However, a divorced woman will always be seen as a threat to couples, which is not the case for divorced men.
These social norms are evolving at the margins, and very slowly, in line with the growing discourse in the country about discrimination against women and queer populations. It will take a long time for the revolution in mentalities to take hold, here as elsewhere...
