Page 110 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Aleksander Panjek and Miha Zobec

that, in many aspects, we have to start from the basics, like family forms
and inheritance practices (Panjek 2021).
As far as the elites in rural areas are concerned, the situation is similar,
if not even more acute. While in recent decades European scholars have in-
creasingly focused on them in literature (Menant and Jessenne 2007a) as
well as at international conferences such as Rural Europe, the reception of
this theme in Slovenia focused on urban elites (Mlinar and Balkovec 2011),
although this work contains a socially and territorially more inclusive con-
tribution (Jerše 2011). The long and rich Slovenian historiographical tradi-
tion on the history of the countryside addressed peasants mostly from a
structural and macro perspective, both as far as the economy and the so-
ciety is concerned, privileging themes like peasant uprisings and peasant
trade and transport activities. Increasing social stratification during the
early modern period is treated at a general level. Albeit cases of peasants
improving their economic standard are mentioned (Panjek 2017, 13–20)
and careers of people of peasant origin who grew into businessmen are
known, thereishardlyany insight intothe eliteassuchorinto themecha-
nismsofeconomicandsocialpowerrelationswithinpeasantcommunities.
The elites are a minority, enacting leadership and enjoying a prominent so-
cial position based on wealth, power, knowledge and, not least, ‘recogni-
tion by others.’ In the countryside, it is necessary to distinguish between a
wider ‘rural elite’ that includes noble and urban landowners, manorial offi-
cers, notaries, merchants, priests and inn-keepers, and the members of the
‘peasant elite’ in a narrower sense (Menant and Jessenne 2007b, 8–9). We
apply this distinction and focus on a family belonging to the latter group.
In addressing this theme, we focus on one of the topics of interest in the
last two decades, namely godparenthood, as testified by the works writ-
ten and promoted by Guido Alfani. Both as a phenomenon and in histor-
ical literature, godfatherhood overcomes the limits of the family and of
its history, as it represents a form of connection and networking of the
family within the community and beyond. Godparenthood remained an
important relationship until the twentieth century, although its meaning
changed between the Middle Ages, the early modern period and, again,
in the nineteenth century. After the Council of Trent, Catholic godparent-
hood became a ‘vertical relationship,’ in which the ‘godfather was the most
prestigious possible and the whole institution of godparenthood tended to
become a means of establishing and reinforcing social clienteles.’ The rela-
tionship ‘between the godparents and the godchildren’s parents [...] was
the vehicle of much more frequent and relevant social and economic inter-

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