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⁹ Pitt-Rivers, J. ed., Mediterranean countrymen (Paris, 1963)Google Scholar; Peristiany, J. G. ed., Honour and shame. The values of Mediterranean society (London, 1965)Google Scholar; Peristiany, J. G. ed., Mediterranean family structures (Cambridge, 1977).Google Scholar These perspectives have been synthesised by P. Burke, who has postulated three great cultural European areas: north-western, eastern and southern. The last, also indicated as Mediterranean, would be so characterised: ‘Romance speaking … with an outdoor culture … low literacy … and a value-system laying great stress on honour and shame’: Burke, P., Popular culture in early modern Europe (London, 1978) 56–7.Google Scholar See also, for a different point of view, Davis, J., People of the Mediterranean (London, 1977).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Smith, R. M., ‘The people of Tuscany and their families in the fifteenth century: medieval or mediterranean?’ Journal of Family History 6 (1981) 125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

¹¹ Smith, , ‘The people of Tuscany’, 113.Google Scholar As R. Rowland has recently pointed out, ‘visto deste el Norte, el sur de la Francia, Toscana y Castilla son todas zonas “Mediterráneas”’. ‘Matrimonio y familia en el Mediterráneo occidental: algunas interrogaciones’, Jiménez, F. Chacón ed., Familia y sociedad en el Mediterráneo occidental (University of Murcia, 1987) 251.Google Scholar

¹² Laslett, P., ‘Family and household as a work group and kin group’, Wall, R., Robin, J. and Laslett, P. eds., Family forms in historic Europe (Cambridge, 1984).Google Scholar

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¹⁴ Kertzer, D. I. and Brettell, C. B., ‘Recenti sviluppi’, 279.Google Scholar For a critique of the concept of the mediterranean family see Jiménez, F. Chacón, ‘La familia en España: una historia por hacer’, Chacon, F. et al. eds., La familia en la España Mediterránea (siglos XV–XIX) (Barcelona, 1987) 30–5.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Barcelona, , 22–25 04 1987.Google Scholar The proceedings of this congress are not yet published. I will quote from the provisional collection of papers assembled under the title Congrés Hispano Luso Italià de demografia histories.

¹⁶ Of special importance was the debate on the role of the southern-Italian family opened by the book of Banfield, E. C., The moral basis of a backward society (Glencoe Ill., 1958).Google Scholar See Moss, W. L., American Sociological Review 23 (1958) 759–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McCorkle, T., American Anthropologist 61 (1959) 133–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sanders, T., American Journal of Sociology 64 (1959) 522CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cancian, F., ‘The south-Italian peasant: world view and political behaviour’, Anthropological Quarterly 34 (1961) 18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Silverman, S., ‘Agricultural organization, social structure and values in Italy: amoral familism reconsidered’, American Anthropologist 70 (1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davis, J., ‘Morals and backwardness’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 12 (1970) 340–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a general reflection on the south Italian peasant world see Giarrizzo, G., ‘Mezzogiorno e civiltà contadina’, Campagne e movimento contadino del mezzogiorno d'Italia dal Dopoguerra ad oggi, vol. II, (Bari, 1980) 293–348.Google Scholar On Sicily see the studies of Blok, A., The Mafia of a Sicilian village 1859–1860 (New York, 1975)Google Scholar and , J. and Schneider, P., Culture and political economy in western Sicily (New York, 1976).Google Scholar For a critique, from an historical point of view, of the anthropological approach to the south Italian reality: Lupo, S., ‘Storia e società nel mezzogiorno d'Italia: a proposito di alcuni studi recenti’, Italia contemporanea 154 (1984) 71–92.Google Scholar

¹⁷ A good example is Tamassia, N., La famiglia Italiana nei secoli decimoquinto edecimosesto (Milano, 1911).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Barbagli, M., Sotto le stesso tetto. Mutamenti della famiglia in Italia dal XV at XX secolo (Bologna, 1984).Google Scholar

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²⁹ On the Sicilian historical background, see Giarrizzo, G., ‘La Sicilia dal viceregno al regno’, Romeo, R. ed., Storia delta Sicilia vol. VI (Napoli, 1978) 115–21.Google Scholar

³⁰ Parish of Santa Maria, Militello, , Libri status animarum, 1746–49Google Scholar; Archivio di Stato di Catania, Censimento del 1831, Acireale. In both cases the percentage of complex households is negligible.

³¹ Bresc, H., ‘La famille dans la société sicilienne médiévale’, Ministero per i beni culturali, La famiglia e la vita quotidiana in Europa dal '400 al '600 (Rome, 1986) 187–206Google Scholar; Di Pasquale, A., Palermo nel 1480. La popolazione del quartiere della Kalsa (Palermo, 1975).Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁶ Burguière, A., ‘Pour une typologie’, 640.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁸ ‘Le système des quartiers lignagers n'est done pas present partout… si nous quittons la Vallée de l'Irno et les collines situées en arrière de Salerne pour la plaine du Sele, si nous quittons les régions de culture arbustive et d'artisanat rural pour les régions d'élevage et d'agriculture extensive, si nous quittons les zones oü la petite propriété paysanne est fortement enracinée pour les zones de latifondo’ we do not find lineage quarters anymore: Delille, , Famille et propriété, 107.Google Scholar For the Longobard influence see Marongiu, A., La famiglia nell 'Italia meridionale, secc. VIII–XIII (Milano, 1944).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Much research, in this field, has been influenced by the work of P. Lamaison on the French region of Gévaudan. See Claverie, E., Lamaison, P., L'impossible marriage. Violence et parenté en Gévaudan 17^e, 18^e, et 19^e siècles(Paris, 1982) 301.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ See the interesting case-study of a village of Latium: Ago, R., Un feudo esemplare (Fasano, 1988).Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Bresc, , ‘Le famille’, 194.Google Scholar

¹¹² This theme should not, in any case, be separated from a more general discussion of social mobility. See for example Giarrizzo, G., ‘Del ratto consensuale in Sicilia: una proposta di ricerca’, Archivio Storico per la Sicilia Orientale 69 (1973) 527–32.Google Scholar