Page 160 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Sandro Guzzi-Heeb

association became a crucial means of socialization for young women who
could not rely upon other forms of public sociability, whereas other public
arenas were open for men, or at least for part of them (Guzzi-Heeb 2023).
On the other hand, the confraternities often facilitated the integration
of immigrant families into the parishes. More often than not, the women
setthestage.IntheContard/2groupfromBovernier,² originallyfromSem-
brancher, Anne-Ursule was enrolled in the Confraternity of the Rosary in
1798 and in that of the Blessed Sacrament in 1809; in 1803 she was followed
by her sister Marie-Josèphe, and in 1806 by Marie Victoire. The women
in the group followed the example of their mother, Anne-Ursule Sarrasin,
who had been a sister of the Confraternity of St Joseph since 1768, where-
as the first ‘brother’ of the family was Jean-François Contard, a member
of the Blessed Sacrament in 1867. When he joined the brotherhood, Jean-
François had thought it through, since at the age of 36 years he was rather
old; most often brothers and sisters are enrolled between the ages of 13 and
16, although later in the Blessed Sacrament. The same phenomenon oc-
curred in the Chambovay/1 group, also from another community: women
joined the brotherhoods long before men, following the example of their
mothers. For the sake of simplicity we speak of ‘families’ based on the sur-
name, i.e. on the masculine lines, being aware that we adhere to a biased
modelofdescriptionofparentalgroups.Representationbyfemalelineages
would reveal more substantial continuities. More often than not, in fact,
it is the mother who ensures the continuity of the practice – and especially
that of the daughters – in the lives of the confraternities (Delumeau 1992).
This might seem obvious from a statistical point of view, since the ‘sisters’
in the confraternities are clearly more numerous than the ‘brothers,’ who
are therefore less likely to follow a paternal example.

Political Allegiances, Conflicts and Sexuality
When Laurent-Joseph Murith, the parson of Liddes, left the church on a
Sunday in November 1790, after mass, some of the parishioners saw him
off by hurling stones. Instead of calming the situation and punishing the
rabble, the Entremont troop commander, Major Eugène Riche, set up a
military occupation of the community to prevent the parish priest’s return

² For a clearer genealogical classification, we distinguish different branches and sub-branches
within large groups with the same surname. A branch (e.g. Bourgeois/1) is a group going
back to the earliest known common ancestor; a sub-branch (e.g. Arlettaz/1f) goes back
to later common ancestors, often born in the eighteenth century and living in different
villages or hamlets.

158