Page 12 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Aleksander Panjek

court files and a family archive, they point to the deeds and misdeeds of
individual male family members, as well as to some activities which en-
abled and testified to their elite position in the community, such as credit.
They then focus on an analysis of godfathers within the Černe family be-
tween 1625 and 1914. By intertwining information on the life of several
male family members with data on godfatherhoods, Panjek and Zobec ver-
ify the connection between their social position and misdeeds and the
fluctuation of godfatherhoods. The family’s elite position made its mem-
bers attractive godfathers to other village families, while moral and ethical
misdeeds affected only the guilty individuals and not the family as a whole.
Godparenthood patterns noticed in the studied case between the late sev-
enteenth and the late nineteenth centuries reflect wider European trends,
although a single elite family does not allow a generalization on the whole
rural society of the area. On the other hand, the use of godparenthood to
measure prestige and popularity seems to work well, reflecting the fluctu-
ations in social prestige deriving from the social position as well as caused
by the misdeeds of prominent family members.
Sandro Guzzi-Heeb focuses on the role of kinship within confraternities
in the Swiss Valais mountains between 1720 and 1850. He finds that while
‘men began distancing themselves from the Church in the late eighteenth
century, as they were attracted by the new social and political ideas of the
time,’ confraternities became a female domain and provided women with
‘the only opportunity to meet collectively in a formal, regular context.’ In
the activity and functioning of confraternities a prominent role was played
by some families and kinship groups, although within the single families
individuals adopted different cultural and political stances and lifestyles.
Interestingly, in several cases confraternities defended traditional forms
of religiosity, which were somewhat permissive or at least not strictly re-
strictive in areas like ‘processions or of sexual relations and dances, which
were often linked to morality problems.’ In the nineteenth century, mostly
run by women, they tended to become more inclusive by also integrating
single women who were engaged in sexual relationships with men before
marriage. This way, Guzzi-Heeb argues, women with a strong link to the
Church ‘prevented an irreparable social and political divide in their com-
munities and mitigated the effects of the ongoing political and religious
polarization.’
Margareth Lanzinger focuses on the case of innkeepers in Tyrol, who
worked along the trade routes across the Alps. Although they were mem-
bers of the social and economic elite, she argues, they ‘have been largely

10