Abstract
This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.
In the recent past so called 'regional experts' described the inhabitants of Salland, a district in the eastern parts of the Netherlands, as conservative and suspicious. In this article this mentality of Sallanders is discussed in relationship with changing power balances in a community of farmer-tenants. With the replacement of various traditional divisions within the local community old characteristics were replaced by a new outlook on life. By making a connection between mentality and power balances via the process of socialization it becomes clear that the static conclusion of the regional experts can only perform a heuristic function and that the term mentality should be used as a dynamic concept.