Page 168 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Sandro Guzzi-Heeb

defined themselves in opposition to radical and anticlerical groups which
organized on the other end of the political spectrum. In Liddes, clearly rad-
ical and anticlerical circles were formed in the nineteenth century around
the Tochet/1 and Talagnon/1 groups; in Bovernier around the Bourgeois/1,
the Michaud/2 or the Sarrasin/2 groups; and in the neighbouring valley
of Bagnes around the Bessard/7 group from the village of Villette (Guzzi-
Heeb 2014; 2017).
But what exactly is a ‘milieu’? And how can we describe its inner struc-
ture? The best way to answer this question is to analyse a particular case.
First of all we must be cautious towards structural generalizations, seeing
the ‘family’ or kinship ties a priori as structuring elements of the society.
We rather have to consider the building of particular milieus as a process
linked to political and religious competition within the community and the
parish.
The involvement of various branches of the large Arlettaz group from
Liddes in the local confraternities was connected with their social ascen-
sion and with their participation in the political-religious conflicts at the
end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. We
can focus on this group because it is easily recognizable from the parish
registers and because information about these families is relatively abun-
dant. Since the group is quite large at the end of the eighteenth century, I
will distinguish different branches – descending from a common ancestor
– and sub-branches by the attribution of different numbers and letters (for
example, Arlettaz/2b; Arlettaz/4a).
In the eighteenth century, only the Arlettaz/1f branch from the hamlet
of Fontaine Dessus appears regularly in the confraternities of the Blessed
Sacrament and the Rosary as allies of several influential families of the
community – although in a subordinate position: Etienne Arlettaz became
Prior of the Blessed Sacrament in 1796, at a time when the political forces
were to be reshaped after the conflict with the priest Laurent Murith. In
fact, after the religious struggles of 1790, when the parson was chased away
from the parish, the leading dynasties of the community experience a cri-
sis and gradually vanish from the local scene. This had fatal consequences
for the Arlettaz/1f from Fontaine Dessus, who gradually disappeared both
from the confraternities and from the political offices.
In the meantime the strategic places were occupied by new men who
were exponents of emerging, new in-groups which played a crucial role
after the fall of the Old Regime and the period of the Helvetic Republic
(1798–1803). At the same time the local confraternities also experienced

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