A comparative study of family transmission systems in the central Pyrenees and northeastern Japan

Abstract

The stem-family system tells us much about the mechanisms controlling reproduction in rural areas and the important role women played as mothers, heiresses, or in other roles. In this article, two stem-family rural societies are compared, one located in the central Pyrenees in Europe (Esparros), the other in northeastern Japan (Aizu domain and Nihonmatsu domain). Both are in mountainous areas. Particular attention is paid to the role of adopted sons and sons-in-law in family transmission processes. D

Central European household and family systems, and the ‘Hajnal–Mitterauer’ line: The parish of Bujakow (18th–19th centuries)

“…The others focused on the investigation of localized economic, cultural and institutional settings in which particular family forms have been embodied, with a strong emphasis on the role of kinship relations beyond households (Plakans, 1977;Kertzer, Hogan, & Karweit, 1992;Kaser, 2002), inheritance practices (e.g. Berkner, 1976;Smith, 1984;Wetherell & Plakans, 1998;Arrizabalaga, 2005;Dribe & Lundh, 2005;Fauve-Chamoux, 2005), changes in the land distribution and other specificities of local economy (Wall, 1986;Mitterauer, 1992;Moring, 1999), environmental factors (e.g. Viazzo, 1989), the elements of folklore (Mitterauer, 1996;Warpula, 2002) and various forms of socio-demographic change (Egerbladh, 1989;Moring, 1993;Fauve-Chamoux, 1995).…”

“…Much of the newest research on household and family behaviours now operates within the Eurasian comparative setting (using population registers and event histories), shifting attention from the search for patterns and regularities within Europe to intercontinental comparisons (e.g. Fauve-Chamoux & Ochiai, 1998;Derosas & Oris, 2002; van Poppel, Oris, & Lee, 2003;Fauve-Chamoux, 2005). This has led to the deterioration of further interests in investigating and discussing central and eastern European family systems.…”

Family reproduction and stem-family system: From Pyrenean valleys to Norwegian farms

“…The comparative study of stem families is a useful exercise because it opens new and unexpected horizons regarding the notion of the "house" or the lineage in the European mountain communities. As we have done with stem families in Northeastern Japan (Fauve-Chamoux, 2005), we intend to extend this comparative approach to the Norwegian odal farm and the Pyrenean house, with the purpose of deepening our knowledge of the reproduction mechanisms that allowed these two communities to develop effective strategies for family continuity while facing and absorbing important socio-economic and demographic changes from the 17th century onward, during a three-century period when they had to open themselves to new markets and to major changes of other kinds.…”

“…Emiko Ochiai and A. Fauve-Chamoux were responsible for a session on the subject at the XIIth International Congress of Economic History in Madrid, Spain, in summer 1998. These two meetings were good occasions for historians from all over the world to explore comparative efforts (Fauve-Chamoux & Ochiai, 1998;Fauve-Chamoux, 2005;Ochiai, 2003). Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux and Solvi Sogner presented the first results of a comparative study of France and Norway in March 2002, at University of Lugano (Switzerland).…”

“…Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux and Solvi Sogner presented the first results of a comparative study of France and Norway in March 2002, at University of Lugano (Switzerland). containing a prototypical stem-family society during preindustrial Tokugawa Japan (Hayami & Kurosu, 2001, p. 317), and it has already been compared with Pyrenean society (Fauve-Chamoux, 2005).…”