Page 148 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Aleksander Panjek and Miha Zobec

politics, Anton’s ‘eliteness’ came to be challenged. His status was menaced
by the changes the nineteenth century brought to the countryside, most
notably his alienation from the village framework, coupled with debt re-
coveries and land seizures, which Anton bravely pursued in the fashion of
his predecessor Ivan. As a result, Anton’s fame greatly diminished in the
eyes of his fellow villagers. In fact, Anton was the last member of the family
to be a mayor. Even though the family as such gradually recovered its status
with Franc Černe, who was a centurion in the Austro-Hungarian army, and
his son Emil Artur, a proficient producer of wine, no family member ever
again gained the position of mayor. While the family managed to retain an
elite status throughout the periods in question, the degree of their elitism
ebbed and flowed depending on the legitimacy of their power/authority
in the community. It could be hypothesized that maintaining an elite sta-
tus was a more difficult endeavour in the less homogenous society of the
nineteenth century than in the more cohesive earlier contexts.
As demonstrated, the desire for an extra-familial godparent was, in
Tomaj, correlated with the patron’s family social prestige. In general terms,
however, the development of godparenthood as demonstrated by the
Černe men resembles the evolution of this kin alliance elsewhere in Eu-
rope and thus reflected broader social transformations (Alfani 2007, 53).
Therefore, the transition from the early modern model with a high degree
of extra-familial godparenthood to the nineteenth century in-family pa-
tronage is apparent in the case of the Černe family as well. Until the mid-
eighteenth century, Černes were only seldom godparents to children of
their own family. Subsequently, with the increase of in-family marriages,
godparenthood, too, progressively becomes an in-family matter. However,
the excess in the share of godparenthood over the family’s portion among
Tomaj households, in place until the third decade of the nineteenth cen-
tury, testifies to their attractiveness beyond the family circle. Godparent-
hood allure was at that time, as demonstrated, tied to the family’s elite
status. The second half of the nineteenth century brought substantial
changes, linked to the increasing restriction of godparenthood within the
family. Arguably, the shift to an in-family ‘model’ was tied to changes en-
gendered by modernization, namely increased exit to urban surroundings
and social differentiation. Social changes manifested in heightened divi-
sions, limiting preferable social contacts to restricted circles (Fertig 2016,
202). Still, social prestige remained a notable factor influencing the choice
of godparents, since Anton Černe’s political activity in Vienna and Gorizia
translated well into the Černes’ desirability for extra-familial godparent-

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