are familists amoral? a test of Banfield's amoral familism hypothesis in a South Italian village

The findings of research conducted in a South Italian village failed to support the two key propositions of Banfield's amoral familism hypothesis. Specifically, it was found that (1) the ethos of the community does not reduce to the rule of amoral familism-"Maximize the material, short-run advantage of the nuclear family;..." and that (2) this rule alone does not accurately represent the villager's orientation toward extrafamilial social behavior.