Advances in Italian and Iberian Family History

Abstract

In the past decade a tremendous increase in family history research in Italy, Spain and Portugal provides new insight into family processes and has many implications for generalizations regarding the course of European family history. In this article many of these new findings are detailed and their historical and theoretical implications assessed. Previous generalizations regarding Mediterranean family history are examined in light of this new evidence. Among the topics discussed are the sources and methods employed in recent research, the household formation systems operating in Italy and Iberia, the role played by inheritance norms and by dowry, changing childrear ing practices—especially as regards child abandonment, marriage patterns, the family lives of the elderly, and the impact of migration on family life. The benefits of considering certain cultural topics in understanding the course of southern European family history are also considered

An Agro-Town Bias? Re-examining the Micro-Demographic Model for Southern Italy in the Eighteenth Century

“…97 According to David Kertzer and Caroline Brettell, "The contrast with the northern regions of the peninsula, where women were a crucial part of the agricultural labor force, could not be more acute." 98 The Southern woman has been made out to have been subordinate to a regime of patriarchal authority and confined to the household. 99 Anthropologists in particular have used this kind of microdemographic information to help argue for cultural theories based around rigid sexual segregation and a "honor" and "shame" syndrome defining both sexuality and personal reputation.…”

Family Formation and Dissolution in an Aegean Island

“…Later on, it became clear that the characteristics of these patterns, and especially of the Mediterranean one, are very fluid, and the typology put forward by Laslett is only a coarse generalization. This was highlighted by more recent studies in Portugal, Spain and Italy, which revealed great variability in these areas as far as household structure and marriage patterns are concerned (see for example Reher, 1990;Kertzer & Brettell, 1987). Nevertheless, Laslett's classification can still be used as a general framework and that is why it is mentioned here.…”

Vantagens de imigrantes e desvantagens de negros: emprego, propriedade, estrutura familiar e alfabetização depois da abolição no oeste paulista

“…Como a política imigratória favorecia famílias, e os fazendeiros preferiam famílias maiores para os contratos de colonato (Stolcke, 1988:17), é provável que as famílias imigrantes nas regiões cafeicultoras fossem maiores, na média, que as famílias de brasileiros. A cultura italiana da época, sobretudo a dos camponeses da Itália setentrional, também valorizava a família conjunta, com irmãos casados morando e trabalhando junto, muitas vezes sob a supervisão do pai (Alvim, 1986:30;Durhan, 1966:30;Kertzer e Brettell, 1987;Pereira, 2002:185-189). Era relativamente comum os casais italianos emigrarem junto com irmãos, cunhados e pais, além dos filhos, uma tendência que aumentava o número de trabalhadores por família.…”