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

Abstract

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.

Stumbling upon places and cultures: An involuntary ethnography in researching the Australian ‘ndrangheta

“…Italian or Southern Italian or Calabrian migrant cultures are bound to evolve across generations and interact with Australian customs, norms and identities in more or less integrated systems of power, as characteristic of any migrant community (Ricatti, 2018). Scholars have researched the strong preservation of Calabrian cultural traditions through intergenerational transmission in Australia (Marino, 2020a(Marino, , 2020bMarino & Chiro, 2014;Papalia, 2008), mindful of the crystallization-even fossilization (Hortal et al, 2020)-of practices observed in migrant communities across generational changes (Logemann, 2013). Ethnographic studies on Italian identity across generations in Australia have demonstrated that the amount of cultural capital accumulated, dynamics of assimilation and the exogenous pressures from the "common sense" of the dominant society have impacted the way different generations feel towards their origins (Marino, 2019b).…”