Inheritance strategies and lineage development in peasant society

Abstract

Inheritance strategies and lineage development in peasant society DAVID SIDDLE* 'We now have a grid that fits over the apparent chaos of French customs...around two opposite poles, that of geneological consanguinity and that of alliance through marriage, antinomic solutions take shape at both extremes of the continuum of possibilities; thus egalitarianism contrasts.. .with the right to advantage heirs for the benefit of community and household.

An inter-continental comparison between the environmental histories of two lake catchment systems in montane environments of France and South West China

“…In Annecy, inhabitants crippled by taxes, without labour in winter and gaining only a meagre living from the land, often chose to practise either seasonal or temporary migration to outlying areas to gain employment in the burgeoning towns and cities of the lowlands. Families and households were maintained by these people sending back remittances to consolidate land holdings (Siddle 1986). The history of Erhai catchment inhabitants is likewise marked with similar tales of human resilience and adaptability to a limited living gained from the land.…”

Kin Relations in a French Alpine Community

“…Settled in the fourteenth century on land leased from the Benedictine monks at Talloire, Montmin is the largest of the seven communes in the lower Annecy lake basin. The population had access to a range of microenvironments from vineyards at 400 m on the valley floor to the alpine pastures at 2000 my with most of the settlement at around 1200 m. What emerges from the documentary evidence is an economy of mixed farming that allowed family groups and their stock access to a wide range of scarce resources in an equitable manner (Siddle 1986). The population datum of Montmin indicates a trend rising to a maximum in the mid-sixteenth century (Duparc 1962;Binz 1963) and then falling to a low point in the mid-eighteenth century through the combined effects of war, plague, poor harvests and a long tradition of out migration (Nicolas 1978).…”

“…From the rich documentary evidence available it is possible to establish a clear picture of a dynamic peasant society with its demographic characteristics and its complex marriage and inheritance arrangements. This picture of a large pre-alpine closed corporate community shows (a) impressive levels of patriline continuity for over 400 years (Jones 1984a); (b) a system of family household structures that portray a high degree of complexity (Jones 1983); (c) a demographic regime that indicates a careful maintenance of the population over resources (Jones 1984b;1987;Flinn 1981) and (d) a set of inheritance strategies that regulates access to resources (Siddle 1986). A brief presentation of these findings will now be made.…”

“…The co-residence of conjugal units was further enhanced by the inheritance practices. The inheritance strategies to be found in Montmin have been established by Siddle (1986) and reveal that, although a father need only benefit one son, the custom was for property to be divided equally whilst in reality it remains intact (impartible partibility). Such joint ownership is consistent with the presence of the complex family household.…”

“…One further illustration of kin and social ties in Montmin would be the relationships that may be uncovered by linking the vital events registers with the day book uournalier) of the Cadastre Sarde and the Tabellion records. These have already been extensively utilised in attempts to expose and formalise the inheritance strategies to be found in the parish during the second half of the eighteenth century (Siddle 1986 , Figures 4,5,7 and 9). It is possible to take this analysis a step beyond identifying either co-inheritors or the roles played by women as guardians and administrators, so as to widen the network of social and, perhaps, economic ties that an individual, family or group may be involved in at one time or through time.…”