Advances in Italian and Iberian Family History

Abstract

In the past decade a tremendous increase in family history research in Italy, Spain and Portugal provides new insight into family processes and has many implications for generalizations regarding the course of European family history. In this article many of these new findings are detailed and their historical and theoretical implications assessed. Previous generalizations regarding Mediterranean family history are examined in light of this new evidence. Among the topics discussed are the sources and methods employed in recent research, the household formation systems operating in Italy and Iberia, the role played by inheritance norms and by dowry, changing childrear ing practices—especially as regards child abandonment, marriage patterns, the family lives of the elderly, and the impact of migration on family life. The benefits of considering certain cultural topics in understanding the course of southern European family history are also considered