Marriage and the Kin Network: Evidence from a 19th-Century Italian Community

This chapter deals with the role and influence of kinship on the decision to marry in a rural population of mid nineteenth century Italy. The reason for this choice lies in the particular social structure of that community, where the two most important social groups, sharecroppers and day laborers, had almost antithetic marriage patterns and family formation systems. Our study demonstrates the key role of kin, especially coresident ones, in modifying the risk of marriage. This situation was particularly pronounced within the large and complex sharecropping households. Constrained by the absolute necessity to maintain not only a balance between farm size and household size but also an adequate supply of labor within the household, sharecroppers posed limits and restrictions on marriages of members, especially men. Gender, age, and marital status were chief factors determining who could marry and when. On the other hand, day laborers were less sensitive to household structure as their activity depended neither on the household labor force nor on the characteristics of the farm. In this case, the access to marriage, ruled only by birth order, was less controlled for both men and women. As for the role of kin outside the household, difficulties in the reconstruction of the entire kin network made the results less conclusive. However, it was only effective in modifying the risk of marriage for women living in sharecropping households. Large and deep-rooted networks of relations favored a woman’s access to marriage, especially when a local man was involved, suggesting the use of marriage to establish and reinforce local family alliances.