Family Alliances and<i>Comparatico</i>among a Group of Calabrian-Australian Families in Adelaide, South Australia

Marino, Simone; Chiro, Giancarlo

doi:10.3998/jar.0521004.0070.105

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Also, the Canadian case can be concomitant to the studies of Marino and Chiro (2014; Marino et al., 2013). These studies on Italian migrants in South Australia highlighted how Italians changed the geographical landscape of Adelaide due to their need of assisting each other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Cultural influences on the yards of Italian migrants’ houses built in Brisbane (Australia)

Furlan

Faggion

2020

Ethnicities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Italian migrants, as well as diverse migrant groups, brought with them cultural practices and a way of life, which are nowadays part of the multicultural Australian built environment and society. This research study focuses on the external yards of domestic dwellings built in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Brisbane by the Italian migrants. Namely, it is argued that the external yards of migrants’ houses are embedded by cultural meanings. The research study is of a qualitative nature and, as primary sources of data, uses (1) semi-structured interviews, (2) photo-elicitation interviews and (3) focus group discussion, which were conducted both in Australia with 21st-generation Italian migrants, and in Italy with 10 informants indigenous to the Veneto region, where they built their homes. Visual data about the houses were collected with (4) photographs and drawings. This paper explores the activities occurring inside migrants’ houses in Brisbane, highlighting the meaning of the activities and the settings where these activities are performed. Through the study of these meanings, it is revealed that the various activities are expressions of the culture, as an accepted way of doing things and/or a way of life, of the country of origin of the respondents.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Cultural influences on the yards of Italian migrants’ houses built in Brisbane (Australia)

Furlan

Faggion

2020

Ethnicities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Relatively few studies have investigated kinship of any type among Italian communities in Australia; exceptions are Bertelli () on Italian‐Australian family patterns, Marino and Chiro () on family values, and Baldassar () on the impact of transnationalism on the aged‐care needs of Veneto‐Australian families. The only previous research which refers directly to spiritual kinship is Cronin’s () seminal work The sting of change: Sicilians in Sicily and Australia , which examined Sicilian social organisation both in its ‘native’ surroundings and after transplantation to Australia, and was based mainly on interviews with 45 males and three females who had emigrated from Sicily to Sydney in the 1960s, and 15 individuals born in Australia to parents who had emigrated from Sicily.…”

Section: Fictive Kinship Spiritual Kinship and Comparaticomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In rural and isolated areas of Calabria, scepticism and resentment towards government institutions were common among villagers (Marino and Chiro ). Values of honour, respect, morality and loyalty – many, as claimed by Moss (), with a feudal origin – were widely considered to address the necessities of life.…”

Section: Conceptualising Calabrian Comparatico and The Rationale For mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparatico(godparenthood) as an emblematic form of social capital among Australian families originating from rural Calabria living in Adelaide, South Australia

Marino

2020

Soc Anthropol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the spiritual kinship known in Italian as comparatico ‘godparenthood’, as it is practised among families originating from specific rural areas of Calabria, southern Italy, who live in Adelaide, South Australia. In the Catholic rite of baptism, the compare (godparent) is a person who promises to share the responsibility of the child’s education with the parents. For the participants of the present study, however, the relationship among compari (godparents) is much more than that, perhaps being better translated as ‘family allies’. Comparatico is a strong relationship that involves not merely the people directly concerned in the religious ceremony, but all members of the two families, leading to the creation of an extended and fictive family, or alliances across multiple families. The paper shows that such inter‐familial cooperation among migrants and their descendants appears to be highly visible among Italians originating from Calabria. Yet it questions why godparenthood ties are even present in a community of Calabrian‐Italian‐Australians. I draw on folklore and network theories particularly, and the Bourdieusian concept of social capital is especially crucial in interpreting the ties of family alliances that exist in the Calabrian diasporic community of Adelaide.

show abstract

“…Among the pioneering sociological research on Italian-Australians was Severino and De Corso (1985), which focused on the working-class experience and particularly on the children of immigrants, finding that young Italian-Australians had low self-esteem compared to their peers from Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. Many other studies have examined aspects of the lives of Italian-Australians from sociological and anthropological approaches (e.g., Baldassar 2001;Baldassar and Gabaccia 2011;Baldassar and Merla 2014;Bertelli 1987;Marino and Chiro 2014;Marino 2018Marino , 2019Sala and Baldassar 2017). One specific issue which has seen a great deal of research is that of gender, particularly in relation to the second generation, the children of Italian migrants to Australia (e.g., Vasta 1995;Baldassar 1998Baldassar , 2001.…”

Section: Studies Of Italian Migrants In Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Existing Research on Italian Migrants in the USA and Australia: A Critical Overview

Marino

2019

The Palgrave Handbook of Citizenship and Education

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chapter provides a brief overview of the literature on Italian migrants in the USA and in Australia and the theoretical reference points on which different research studies are based. US literature was historically characterized by concepts of social change and assimilationist approaches whereby immigrant groups were expected to merge into general American culture. Some academic assumptions were maintained by later American sociologists studying Italian groups, although with new terminology, including urbanization, adaptation, accommodation, and social adjustment. In Australia, the rise of multicultural policies in the 1970s contrasted with the laissez-faire attitude to ethnic pluralism in the USA and led Australian literature to focus more on issues of cultural transmission and the construction of Italian ethnic groups. Australian studies, ranging across different disciplines, have examined the social organization of Italian migrants, mainly those from a working-class background and with a focus on domestic and family dynamics. More recently, both US and Australian studies have touched on matters of transnationalism, looking at issues such as the contemporary migration to the USA referred to as la fuga dei talenti ("the flight of the talented"), coexisting transnational contexts, gender, globalization, and matters of citizenship.

show abstract

Family Alliances andComparaticoamong a Group of Calabrian-Australian Families in Adelaide, South Australia

Cited by 19 publications

References 30 publications

Cultural influences on the yards of Italian migrants’ houses built in Brisbane (Australia)

Cultural influences on the yards of Italian migrants’ houses built in Brisbane (Australia)

Comparatico(godparenthood) as an emblematic form of social capital among Australian families originating from rural Calabria living in Adelaide, South Australia

Existing Research on Italian Migrants in the USA and Australia: A Critical Overview

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About