PORTUGUESE
NOBILITY; HISTORIC SHIFT FROM
BILATERAL, PARTIBLE INHERITANCE TO PATRILINEAL AND PRIMOGENITURE
700 - 800 division between Muslim and Christian
areas
800 - and 900s establishment of elites,
inheritance partible, separate titles
through male and female lines, Contessa to her daughter
daughter's names, imply very different
roles, Loba, shewolf vs. Virgin Mary names only 200 years later.
Endogamous marriage common of lst cousins,
helps to keep land in families
Goody, bilateral descending kindred
1100 restricted inheritance begins, niches filled up, frontier gone, all land allotted and families have been growing. patriliny, principle male in sibship inherits, lineage names appear = place names
1160-1200 primogeniture and patriliny firmly
established
elder and younger
sons, primary and cadet lines of families
1383-1385 - Civil War, old elites overturned but
followers of the illegitimate half brother of the previous king
new noble class
created, rural landholdings, resettlement of frontier
Landholdings:
principal form of wealth, nonpartible capital. 2 ways to manage
a. large numbers of plots and dispersed places
but can't control by single inheritance and endogamy, dispersal means easy prey to encroachment
b. lands localized, place = lineage, can control though endogamy, patriliny and primogeniture
Rate of foundations of monasteries 9-12 th
Centuries
11th
C # of families has tripled
Patriliny and male bias among elites: strategies that maximize lineage survival
and posterity in the face of high mortality.
Patriliny, male bias, and male-male competition
when:
a) resources
unequally distributed among population
b) wealth
greater determinant of male than female reproductive success
c) socioeconomic
status of parent conferred upon offspring
Intensity of bias to males greatest at the top,
less at the bottom
Fundamental process in the development of state
political systems around the world.
However demographic processes originating at the family level
interrelates with patterns of competition among lineages over sources of wealth
and power among the entire elite population.
1350-1580 - intensifying pattern of competition over lands and titles among
the nobility of Portugal. late medieval and early modern periods. (family demography, resource competition,
territorial expansion and political instability)
Increased
competition over titles and estates
Over following 200 years: 1380-1580 the elite population
grew faster than the numbers of titles and estates within Portugal's territory,
intense competition
Resulting landless elite males mainly younger
sons participated in the were a main impetus behind Port expansion into Africa
and India, which began by 1415. By mid
16th C close to 25% of noble males who
reached adulthood would subsequently die in expansionist or internecine
warfare. Excess female elites, who
lacked dowries or potential mates of high status, entered convents at an
increasing rate throughout the period.
By end of the period 35% of noblewomen who reached early adulthood were
being channeled into convents
Portuguese case study: Boone summary
n=3700 computerized registry. male and female patrilineal descendents of
top 25 lineages
in Portugal born between 1380-1580
Clear
relationship between male status and reproductive success
higher ranking nobles and
officials left 4.75 recorded offspring
untitled and military
classes, bottom of elites left 2.33 recorded young, problem
of legitimacy -
talking here about inheritance of reproductive estates
women, high 3.78,
lowest 3.32 - remember these are noble families
What do you call this
when comparing values between males and between females?
Variance
Daughters of the untitled classes were much more
likely to marry than those of the primary nobility
10-40% of highest class women entered convents.
CF female infanticide? India
So women of the lowest status gentry had higher
reproductive success than same status males, while in the highest class, the
opposite was true
Why have more children than you can raise? Doesn’t wealth guarantee fertility?
Fertility yes, but not child survival.
35% of children born to noble families in Europe
between 1500-1700 died before the age of 15.
Young reproductive adults died too.
Only guarantee for family line to continue was to have lots of children
and hope some made it. Also to have
adult children in reserve, men waiting in monasteries to be brought out to
reproduce. Not celibate callings.
wetnursing maximum
Reproductive
success by birth order
Thoughts:
Inheritance today in US.
Families average 2 children.
Is there a bias in inheritance?
A dowry?
19th century daughters dowered, sons were educated.
Today, education of daughters as well as sons.
Class differences in estate inheritance
