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Vilarinho da Furna, a mountainous agro-pastoral village, was an isolated communal settlement where pastoral activities were organised collectively, and social life was governed by decisions made by elected leaders. This organisation was praised as being a veritable example of "representative democracy." Communalism was also regarded as a positive factor, since it was detached from ‘individualism’ – a term referring to capitalistic attitudes, such as self-interest and the pursuit of profit – which prevailed in urban environments. This representation of a village, guided by fraternity, was also linked to the celebration of its inhabitants' skills. While, from an evolutionary perspective, these people were seen as being bound to cognitive practices such as magic and superstition, deemed false in the light of modern science, the positive manner in which he viewed them was evident. H e praised their intelligence, independence of thought, capacity for reflecting on life and fate, and for expatiating on international politics far more skilfully than the ‘middle-class bourgeois’ city dwellers.
This approach of exalting these rural populations, which stood in stark contrast to their representation as "ignorant," "backward," or "bumpkins"—a term frequently used by the middle class at the time—was reproduced in his second, much larger monograph, dedicated to the village of Rio de Onor in Trás-os-Montes. Although Dias’ intellectual development had evolved in the meantime— with a greater contribution from Peninsular ethnology and history, and the noticeable impact of North American cultural anthropology—the same type of view was reproduced. Local life was praised, with the coexistence of private property and various forms of collective ownership, where its organisation was based on the election of leaders by the villagers—another example of "representative democracy"—and its pre-capitalist outlook on life. It was both an empathetic and appreciative portrayal of these populations, but also an idealised, pastoral, and nostalgic one, of a life that was exceedingly difficult and, for many, entirely miserable (J. Leal, Antropologia em Portugal [Anthropology in Portugal], pp. 149-166). This image is in line with his admiration for the bucolic and idealised representations of the rural world of Júlio Dinis (José M. Sobral, O Outro aqui tão Próximo..., 2007, p. 516).
