Page 222 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Aleksej Kalc

better livelihood, and meet conditions for family reproduction. However,
until the late nineteenth century, relocations to Trieste were rare in Dolina
because the community acted in a ‘protective’ way and tended to retain its
members as much as possible. This was also due to a reluctant attitude to-
wards the city, which was considered socially inappropriate for rural peo-
ple. From the 1880s, in contrast, village society began to expel the poorest
and those with unfavourable prospects. In this way, and through careful
marriage strategies, families and the community tried to maintain their
socio-economic sustainability and resisted or adapted to the challenges of
the times (Verginella 1990, 6−7).
A tendency to preserve the socio-economic structure of village commu-
nities and families based on land ownership and the peasant economy
was also present in the area of Tomaj. Land served as the fundamental
capital upon which the social status of families depended over the cen-
turies, regardless of other economic resources. Demographic behaviour,
from marriage and reproductive choices to migration, reflected the efforts
to preserve this capital and the village social system. At the same time,
the presence of Tomajans in Trieste throughout the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuriessuggeststhattherewaslessscepticismtowarddepartures
for the city in this part of the countryside than in Dolina and that such
an option was more common in economic and social strategies. Howev-
er, it must be questioned whether emigration can be interpreted simply
in terms of expelling the ‘exceeding’ household members and associating
the phenomenon with the poorest and weakest segments of village society.
Females from the Tomaj area found in Trieste marriage registers and cen-
suses came to the city with almost no exception via the route of domestic
servanthood. They were presumably sent by families in economic need but
also in search of optimizing the household labour supply. As for male em-
igrants, the data show that they were mainly engaged in craft activities in
the city. Although these occupations were economically modest, directing
the children along these vocational paths (through apprenticeships) en-
tailed a certain economic input from their families. Given the continuity
of the phenomenon, it appears that the migratory option was not merely
an exclusionary practice to adapt the family size and composition in given
circumstances. It seems that for females, but especially for males, planning
thefutureoffamilymembersbyundertakingthejourney to thenearby city
and social transformation played a role.
From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, emigration became increas-
ingly intertwined with the necessity of specialization and intensification

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