Networks and Comparatico Across the Three Generations

Abstract

In this chapter, I extend the discussion of the sites and practices to the community network. The network, especially the weight of its expectations and worldviews, and the degree to which individuals participate in its social, cultural, familial and religious practices, seems to contribute to a stronger sense of ethnic identity. Emblematic is the family alliance of comparatico among certain Australian families originating from the same Calabrian areas of origin. This cultural practice appears to link a number of the participating families who conform to and share certain practices and expectations (and these families report having a ‘more traditional’ identity). The socio-economic modus vivendi of this network— made up of assistance, obligations, social visits, gift exchange and gossip— encapsulated within sharing the same ‘feel for the game’ (Bourdieu 1986) keeps the families and the wider circle together and contributes to a sense of collective ethnic identity. The chapter presents the genealogies of the participating families who are bound by comparatico.