Page 172 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Sandro Guzzi-Heeb

A few observations on the structure of the milieu may be useful: an ob-
viously devout tradition did not manifest itself in this group before 1813,
when Fidèle Arlettaz became a crucifer in the Confraternity of the Blessed
Sacrament.Michel-Joseph Arlettaz appearsasatorch-bearerin1821andin
the following years. Michel-Joseph’s son, Charles Valentin, would be cru-
cifer from 1841 on, and Fidèle’s daughter Caroline became Prioress of the
Holy Rosary in 1842. Numerous other members of these families played
a more or less important role in the confraternities in the period follow-
ing the political restoration of 1815. As mentioned before, however, it is
important to look beyond a strictly patrilinear logic: a devout culture was
probably influenced by Fidèle’s and Michel-Joseph’s mother, coming from
the Lattion/2 group, which looked back to a longer tradition within local
confraternities.
However, we must be careful not to fall back into a deterministic vi-
sion: if in the milieu mentioned we are witnessing a religious family cul-
ture over several generations as well as a densification of relationships and
alliances between people faithful to the Church, we do not observe any
formation of a closed-off group. In general we observe privileged alliance
relationships with other members of brotherhoods (for example for the
children of Michel-Joseph Arlettaz, who mostly marry men and women
belonging to local confraternities), but not in a systematic way. At the same
time, patterns of social behaviour do not reflect any rigid group discipline.
Even among the children of Fidèle Arlettaz, for example, Charles-Valentin
played an important role as an officer of the Confraternity of the Blessed
Sacrament for several years, but his brother Etienne-Joseph, although a
member of the Confraternities of the Scapular and the Rosary, had several
illicit sexual relationships, as did his sister Anne-Marie. In the nineteenth
century, social discipline was exerted rather on family and descent than on
whole kinship groups, as was frequent in the second half of the eighteenth
century.

Conclusion
IntheValaismountains,menbegandistancingthemselvesfromtheChurch
in the late eighteenth century, as they were attracted by the new social and
political ideas of the time, while the concrete life of the parishes was being
increasingly underpinned by women. Of course it is important to stress
that the secularisation process only concerned specific milieus and kin-
ship groups, not the whole of society. In the confraternities, however, the
imbalance between male and female members increased dramatically dur-

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