Page 144 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Aleksander Panjek and Miha Zobec

appointed the members of their community, losing their appeal. A combi-
nation of these factors may also not be excluded.
In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, most of the legal pro-
ceedings by the Černes for the collection of debts and real estate issues
against members of other families were concentrated in the year 1780,
when as many as ten cases were initiated. In that year, the number of
Černe godfathers was indeed a little low, albeit on the rise after Jakob left
the mayor’s position. Within the following two years the Černe godfather-
hoods reached a new peak, albeit short-lived, but still sufficient to consider
that at this point not even a broad debt recovery action on the members
of the Tomaj and neighbouring communities had a negative effect on the
image of the family, at least by measuring it in terms of godparenthood.
Similarly, the five legal proceedings initiated by members of the family
against other Černe men for financial and patrimonial issues in the last
twenty years of the century, which signal how the solidarity between the
increasingly numerous and distant family branches was weakening, had an
impact within the community. In contrast, in three out of five cases, that
is in the years 1781, 1796 and 1796, trials for material matters between the
branches of the family coincided with outstanding peaks in the number of
godfathers.
The frequent court appearances for debt collection and other property
disputes in the last two decades of the eighteenth century do not appear
to have had a negative impact on the number and share of godparenthood.
Except for rare years, the Černes stay above, and often well above, the ex-
pected average of reciprocity. Such a positive picture increases somewhat
in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In the second decade, increas-
ingly frequent drops can be observed, but the Černes are still well above
the expected level of reciprocity in the share of godparenthoods related
to their share in the number of households in the village (figure 4.3). Their
economic elite position, which they also demonstrate by further occupying
the position of mayor, is still clearly reflected in the very high desirability
of their members as godfathers for the children of other families in Tomaj.
Such a reality persisted until the end of the third decade of the nineteenth
century – but after 1828, nothing would be the same again.
In the nineteenth century, but especially after its third decade, a steady
decrease in extra-familial godfatherhood can be observed. The continuous
decline was most probably linked to the shifts in the village fabric, namely
the increased outflow which resulted from modernization processes oc-
curring in the second half of the nineteenth century (see Kalc in this vol-

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