The effects of social class on migration distances and on the frequency of consanguineous marriages in Errazu, a Pyrenean village in Navarre, Spain, have been studied using data from parish records of baptisms and marriages, 1850-1910, and the census data for the year 1897. Migration distances are greater for tenants than for land-owners. Mean marital distances are not significantly different for the two social classes, but the movement of tenant families during married life results in significantly different parent-offspring distances for the two classes, at the 0.001 level for fathers and at the 0.002 level for mothers, by a t-test. Consanguineous marriages, up to and including third cousin marriages, are more frequent among land-owners (16.3 per cent) than among tenants (3.7 per cent). These frequencies are consistent with estimates based on the demographic characteristics of the population. Some implications of these results are discussed with reference to the findings of communities elsewhere in Europe and studies of communities in Japan. The implications of variation in the social class composition of populations with population density, for pedigree inbreeding values, are also considered.
This paper tests the hypothesis that the inverse relationship between population density and migration distances in pre-industrial Europe results from variation in the social class composition of communities. Data from two Pyrenean valleys in Navarre, Spain, provide support for the hypothesis. Further effects on migration distances may result from variation in the settlement pattern of communities. Seasonal movement associated with certain occupations seems to be unimportant.
In an earlier paper (Abelson, 1978) it was suggested that relationships between population density, migration, and the frequency of consanguineous marriage depended on variation in the social class composition of populations. For two valleys in the western Pyrenees, it was found that migration distances are shorter in areas with lower population density and that this could in part be attributed to the effects of social class independently of the occupations of the population (Abelson, 1979). The present paper investigates further the relationships between migration, the frequency of consanguineous marriage and inbreeding in the Roncal valley in Navarre, Spain, for the period 1877–1915. The Roncal valley contains seven villages, each a separate administrative unit. Almost all the total population of 3900 live in these nucleated villages and there are few isolated households. The area of the valley is 420 km2, and the population density 9·28 inhabitants/km2.
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