>The classic (and perhaps apocryphal) case is the village the culture
>of which was destroyed when some western dogooders installed running
>water in the homes. It seems the village was held together by women
>talking to each other at the communal well.
http://www.newadvent.org/bible/joh004.htm
He (Jesus) comes therefore to a city of Samaria, which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There comes a woman of Samaria, to draw water. Jesus says to her: Give me to drink. 8 For his disciples had gone into the city to buy meats. 9 Then that Samaritan woman said to him: How do you, being a Jew; ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her: If you knew the gift of God and who he is that says to you: Give me to drink; you perhaps would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water. 11 The woman said to him: Sir, you have nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep. From whence then have you living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof, himself and his children and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said to her: Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever. 14 But the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting. 15 The woman said to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw. 16 Jesus says to her: Go, call your husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: You have said well: I have no husband. 18 For you have had five husbands: and he whom you now have is not your husband. This, you have said truly. 19 The woman said to him: Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers adored on this mountain: and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore. 21 Jesus says to her: Woman, believe me that the hour comes, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. 22 You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know. For salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour comes and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such to adore him. 24 God is a spirit: and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman said to him: I know that the Messias comes (who is called Christ): therefore, when he has come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus says to her: I am he, who am speaking with you. 27 And immediately his disciples came. And they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What do you seek? Or: Why are you talking with her? 28 The woman therefore left her waterpot and went her way into the city and says to the men there: 29 Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ? 30 They went therefore out of the city and came unto him. 31 In the mean time, the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat. 32 But he said to them: I have meat to eat which you know not. 33 The disciples therefore said one to another: Has any man brought him to eat? 34 Jesus says to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work. 35 Do not you say: There are yet four months, and then the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries. For they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that sows, and it is another that reaps. 38 I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour. Others have laboured: and you have entered into their labours. 39 Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done. 40 So when the Samaritans had come to him, they desired that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed in him, because of his own word. 42 And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for your saying: for we ourselves have heard him and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.