Parroquia - History Lab

The parish as a central space of social life

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

Once the Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula for Catholicism was over, new churches and parishes were founded, some where there was already a mosque, others in the central areas of the new population centres that arose. This process of parochialisation had the greatest impact on the configuration of the new Christian society. In the Modern Age, rural communities had the parish as their geographical and social centre, a space that reflected, on the one hand, the political and religious order and, on the other hand, the central point from which to orientate themselves: being in the world. The drawings shown are examples that the author of the resource proposes as forms of representation of the local community, that is, of the very conception of space in the form of churches. Gójar and Calicasas (Granada) were depicted in the Ensenada Cadastre (1753-1754) in the same way that Tomás López, as early as 1786-1789, received a sketch for his Relaciones Geográficas: a church surrounded by houses which, like satellites, mark the form of the structure of the space of the municipality or place. All this reflects the prevailing profound mentality of modernity, which imprinted its everyday values on society.

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The evolution of generational demographic parameters in Southern Western Galicia (1584-1670)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:40 +0000

The resource deals with the demographic evolution of four generations, looking at their family composition, number of families, ages of access to marriage and the duration of marriage, among other items, between 1584 and 1670. The geographical area is centred on the south of western Galicia, the Bajo Miño, through the study of the rural parish of San Martín de Caldelas; a North Atlantic demographic model marked by the late age of access to marriage for women (24.5 years), the low level of second marriages (16.7%) and the duration of marriage (25 years) which resulted in a duration of fertility for couples of 13.9 years. The intergenerational synthesis reflected in the resource is reflected in the exponential growth of the parish which, after 100 years, had to be remodelled to increase its capacity to welcome the faithful. The growth, according to the author’s study, was mainly due to the nuptiality; a framework of legitimised fecundity, and the low mortality of those born.

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Shaping the Demographic Parameters of the Differentiated Household in a North Atlantic Model (1584-1670)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:40 +0000

Rural society in south-western Galicia, in the Bajo Miño region, was part of the North Atlantic demographic system. The study of the parish of San Martín de Caldelas, between 1584 and 1670, shows us the configuration of households according to their economic, material and status level within society: upper, middle and lower families. A first analysis reveals the predominance in number of the lower, more humble families. In these families, the average number of children per family was lower than in the middle and upper families, being 5.79, 7.67 and 6.6 respectively. Another significant difference is the age of entry into marriage, both for women and men, with the poorer families showing a tendency to delay entry due to a late exit from the family, while the upper families had a younger age of marriage for the male than the others. This age difference had an impact on the years of actual fertility, being higher in the more privileged families. The wide variety of information provided by the author helps us to understand the demographic dynamics of families; a structural issue for the analysis and explanation of the society of the Ancien Régime.

The post Shaping the Demographic Parameters of the Differentiated Household in a North Atlantic Model (1584-1670) first appeared on History Lab.