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Family Alliances and Comparatico among a Group of Calabrian-Australian Families in Adelaide, South Australia
Abstract
The present study examines baptism godparenthood, the Italian spiritual kinship system (known as comparatico) among people originating from rural areas of Calabria, southern Italy, who migrated to Adelaide, South Australia, in the 1950s and 1960s. The study specifi cally investigates the transmission of norms and the widespread observance of duties associated with the practice of comparatico among participants. Social relations among allied families produce social capital by generating high levels of obligations and expectations. Participants have maintained and reinforced spiritual kinship with non-kin, often originating from the same Calabrian village. The study reveals how the comparatico system evolves into an extended network infl uencing everyday practices. Non-consanguineous informants, after becoming compari (family allies), are bound by obligations and/or privileges involving both their private and socioeconomic lives.
... Relatively few studies have investigated kinship of any type among Italian communities in Australia; exceptions are Bertelli (1985) on Italian-Australian family patterns, Marino and Chiro (2014) on family values, and Baldassar (2007) on the impact of transnationalism on the aged-care needs of Veneto-Australian families. The only previous research which refers directly to spiritual kinship is Cronin's (1970) seminal work The sting of change: Sicilians in Sicily and Australia, which examined Sicilian social organisation both in its 'native' surroundings and after transplantation to Australia, and was based mainly on interviews with 45 males and three females who had emigrated from Sicily to Sydney in the 1960s, and 15 individuals born in Australia to parents who had emigrated from Sicily. ...
... In rural and isolated areas of Calabria, scepticism and resentment towards government institutions were common among villagers (Marino and Chiro 2014). Values of honour, respect, morality and loyalty -many, as claimed by Moss (1981), with a feudal origin -were widely considered to address the necessities of life. ...
This paper examines the spiritual kinship known in Italian as comparatico ‘godparenthood’, as it is practised among families originating from specific rural areas of Calabria, southern Italy, who live in Adelaide, South Australia. In the Catholic rite of baptism, the compare (godparent) is a person who promises to share the responsibility of the child’s education with the parents. For the participants of the present study, however, the relationship among compari (godparents) is much more than that, perhaps being better translated as ‘family allies’. Comparatico is a strong relationship that involves not merely the people directly concerned in the religious ceremony, but all members of the two families, leading to the creation of an extended and fictive family, or alliances across multiple families. The paper shows that such inter‐familial cooperation among migrants and their descendants appears to be highly visible among Italians originating from Calabria. Yet it questions why godparenthood ties are even present in a community of Calabrian‐Italian‐Australians. I draw on folklore and network theories particularly, and the Bourdieusian concept of social capital is especially crucial in interpreting the ties of family alliances that exist in the Calabrian diasporic community of Adelaide.
« Comparatico » (le parrainage) comme forme emblématique de capital social dans les familles australiennes originaires des régions rurales de Calabre et résidant à Adélaïde (Australie‐Méridionale)
fr Cet article examine la parenté spirituelle, connue en italien sous le terme de comparatico, « parrainage », telle qu’elle se pratique dans les familles originaires de certaines zones rurales de Calabre, dans le sud de l’Italie, et qui vivent à Adélaïde en Australie‐Méridionale. Dans le rituel catholique du baptême, le compare (parrain ou marraine) est une personne qui s’engage à assurer une partie de l’éducation de l’enfant aux côtés des parents. Toutefois, dans le cas des sujets de la présente étude, le lien avec les compari (parrains) est bien plus que cela, et s’exprimerait peut‐être davantage dans le terme « alliés de la famille ». Comparatico désigne une relation forte qui implique non seulement les personnes directement concernées par la cérémonie religieuse, mais aussi tous les membres des deux familles, formant ainsi une famille élargie et fictive ou des alliances entre plusieurs familles. L’article montre que ce type de coopération interfamiliale demeure très présente chez les Italiens originaires de Calabre, parmi les immigrés et leurs descendants. Mais il interroge aussi sur les raisons pour lesquelles ces liens de parrainage existent au sein d’une communauté de Calabrais‐Italiens‐Australiens. Je m’appuie notamment sur les théories du folklore et des réseaux ; d’autre part, le concept bourdieusien de capital social est particulièrement essentiel pour comprendre les liens des alliances familiales existant dans la communauté diasporique calabraise d’Adélaïde.
... Since the beginning of the twentieth century, approximately 70,000 Calabrians have moved to Australia (Sergi, 2014), and the migrants were primarily employed as shepherds, miners, or farmers (Baggio & Sanfilippo, 2011). It was the province of Reggio Calabria that provided the most substantial share of regional migration to Australia (Marino & Chiro, 2014). After World War II and until 1953, Calabria became the most represented Italian region in Australia, with most of the migrants being peasants who originated from a small number of underprivileged rural villages adjacent to the Aspromonte hinterland, such as San Luca, Platì, Sinopoli, Taurianova, Benestare, and Careri. ...
... Such a cultural response created Calabrian communities in the two major Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne, but also in suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, such as Midland, Balcatta, Stirling, and Osborne Park. In Adelaide, South Australia, Calabrians established themselves in areas like Salisbury, Lockleys, Kidman Park, and Seaton (Marino & Chiro, 2014). ...
This paper provides a phenomenological reconceptualisation of ethnic identity. Drawing upon a case study of a family originating in Calabria, Italy, and living in Adelaide, South Australia, I consider the way in which the three generations perceive their ‘being ethnic’ across time and space. The first-generation participants were born in Italy and migrated to Australia during the 1950s; the second generation are their children; and the third generation are the children of the second generation. The findings show a widespread intergenerational identification of ethnicity as ‘being Italian’, which, however, has different meanings across the three generations. This depends on the participants’ phenomenological perceptions of being thrown into the world [Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. (J. Macquarie & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York, NY: Harper]. Some 40 years after Huber’s [(1977). From pasta to Pavlova: A comparative study of Italian settlers in Sydney and Griffith. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press] study about the assimilation of Italian-Australians published in her book From Pasta to Pavlova, the present paper shows a movement from pavlova to pasta, especially by the third-generation participants, who experience a sense of ethnic revival. Essential in such a shift of ethnic identity is what I refer to as institutional positionality; that is, one’s perceptions of the position of one’s ‘ethnic being in the world’. This is investigated by combining with the sociology of migration, including the Bourdieusian conceptual apparatus of capital [Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research in the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press], a Heideggerian existential theory [Heidegger, 1962]. Such a juxtaposition provides further reflexivity through a reconceptualisation that considers the role of ontology in the sociology of migration.
... Other sociological studies as well as evidence from anthropological research into kinship verify the notion that kin ties have always played an important part in family life and wellbeing. Of particular relevance to this discussion are studies that examine different types of kinship, beyond the biological or genetic, including kinship networks developed by sexual minority individuals Weeks, Heaphy and Donovan, 2001;Weston, 1991) and those that include other family of choice members such as fictive kinship found among adoptive families , or the ritual or spiritual type of fictive kinships (Marino, 2020;Marino and Chiro, 2014;Simone, 2020). Interestingly, Caneva's (2015) study that focused on immigrant children's interpretation of their mothers' migration and the family reunification at a later stage demonstrated that social kinship constructed in everyday practices with their mother was more important than biological kinship for the reunited children. ...
... Italian or Southern Italian or Calabrian migrant cultures are bound to evolve across generations and interact with Australian customs, norms and identities in more or less integrated systems of power, as characteristic of any migrant community (Ricatti, 2018). Scholars have researched the strong preservation of Calabrian cultural traditions through intergenerational transmission in Australia (Marino, 2020a(Marino, , 2020bMarino & Chiro, 2014;Papalia, 2008), mindful of the crystallization-even fossilization (Hortal et al., 2020)-of practices observed in migrant communities across generational changes (Logemann, 2013). Ethnographic studies on Italian identity across generations in Australia have demonstrated that the amount of cultural capital accumulated, dynamics of assimilation and the exogenous pressures from the "common sense" of the dominant society have impacted the way different generations feel towards their origins (Marino, 2019b). ...
In the past decade, the attention to the Calabrian mafia, the ‘ndrangheta, has been rekindled everywhere in the world. On the one hand, Italian attention to the phenomenon has increased; on the other hand, the mobility of the Calabrian clans has been the object of scrutiny in view of the clan’s wealth and ability to commit transnational criminal activities. This has also fed the presumption that (alleged) offenders of Calabrian origins around the world must belong to, and replicate the structure of, the ‘ndrangheta clans, also down under. This contribution will be a reflection on the difficulties and the complexities of a journey into researching the ‘ndrangheta in Australia from a criminological–anthropological perspective, in consideration of—but in contrast with—the mythical figures associated with the Calabrian mafia and its illicit global markets. Some of the difficulties, as well as some of the mistakes that I have made in this research, because of the involuntary (and disorganized) nature of the ethnography, directly question the narrative of the illegal global reach of this mafia and provide methodological reflections and lessons for criminological ethnographies.
... Carlton's Little Italy), but also other areas like Fairfield and Bossley Park (Sydney), Stirling (Perth), districts in Adelaide, and Canberra's hinterland. Scholars have researched the strong preservation of Calabrian cultural traditions through intergenerational transmission in Australia (Marino & Chiro, 2014), mindful of the crystallisation of practices observed in migrant communities across generational changes (Logemann, 2013). One must question the significance that the preservation of Calabrian cultural values for affiliates and clans of the 'ndrangheta -i.e. for the organisation 'ndrangheta. ...
While attention to the 'ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, in Australia, has significantly increased in the past two decades, historical records referring to this peculiar manifestation of organised crime in the country date back almost a century. This research is situated in between studies on mafia mobility and studies on the nature of mafia-type organised crime in Italy and in Australia. Relying on archival research, fieldwork and focus groups with law enforcement agencies across most Australian jurisdictions, this paper will essentially argue that there is in Australia an ongoing criminal system that is made of ethnically hybrid criminal networks-predominantly made of, but not limited to, Calabrian ethnicity. Ethnic solidarity and traditional norms and values of the 'ndrangheta, embedded in Calabrian migrant culture, provide the roof to these networks' behaviours and organisation. This paper will discuss how the resilience of this mafia in Australia is linked to the capacity of 'ndrangheta clans to maintain different heads-to be polycephalous-all differently and equally important: their organisational head is stable and culturally homogeneous, their (mafia-type) behaviours are constant, flexible and rooted in ethnic solidarity, and their activities are very dynamic, but hybrid in their ethnic composition.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0004865818782573
... Crucially, the various manifestations of the Calabrian clans in Australia might have been favoured by the large migration fluxes from Calabria to Australia. The peculiar preservation of Calabrian values, cultural codes, rituals and traditions in certain parts of Australia -notwithstanding generational evolution (Marino and Chiro, 2014) -has dissimulated the growth of mafia families within the Calabrian community. The exploitation of shared cultural codes is typical of mafia behaviour. ...
Mafia-type criminal groups belonging to, or originated from, the Calabrian ‘ndrangheta from Southern Italy, have been object of recent academic research and media attention in Australia. The Australian ‘ndrangheta, as qualified form of organised crime, poses new challenges for law enforcement in the country. This paper briefly looks at the strategies to fight organised crime in Australia, with specific focus on anti-association laws. By using a comparative approach, the paper will look at the criminalisation of mafias as qualified forms of organised crime in other two jurisdictions, Italy and the USA, to advocate for an effective mafia criminalisation in Australia. In conclusion, this paper will argue that, in order to also fight mafia phenomena, criminal law in Australia should focus on behaviours of organised crime groups rather than only on the criminalisation of proscribed associations and their illegal activities.
Sergi, A. (2016) Countering the Australian ‘ndrangheta: The criminalisation of mafia behaviour in Australia between national and comparative criminal law, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, Published online before print June 13, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0004865816652367
This article engages Italian migrant experiences and enactments of futurity to problematize neoliberal anticipatory approaches to ageing and care. Stepping beyond the focus on atomized and agentic individuals and a singular imagined future defined by notions of advancement and progress, sistemazione (home, future, and security) offers ways of building alternative and relational futures within times and spaces of shared precarity. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Italian migrant families living in Adelaide, and a critical analysis of objects as “orienting devices,” to consider how a family heirloom, a 26-face handmade Italian clock made from the physical remnants of World War II, offers new ways of imagining care within spaces of ruin.
This article highlights a divergence between equivalent cultural practices undertaken by Calabrians in Italy and by individuals originating from Calabria living in Australia. It offers a reflexive framework on identity and authenticity. Previous research on a group of Calabrian-Australian families living in Australia found a widespread feeling among participants that they were ‘more Italian’ than the Italians who live in Italy. On the other hand, similar claims were made in Italy, during a brief period of fieldwork in Calabria among the ‘sedentaries’ (those who did not emigrate). Data show differences between the modus operandi of equivalent cultural practices among the participants in Adelaide and in Calabria and a divergence in participants’ perceptions of ethnic identity and authenticity. In proposing the terms ‘Archetype village’ and ‘Alter Ego village’ to refer respectively to the migrants’ village of origin and their community overseas the article examines notions of authenticity utilising socio-anthropological theory.
This chapter provides an outline of the previous literature on ethnic identity and on Italian migrant groups in Australia. Although ethnic identity has been approached from myriads of theories and different academic fields (e.g. anthropology, history and psychology), the common denominator among this vast academic landscape is a tendency to rely on conflicting (often dichotomous) or one-sided approaches. For example, whereas sociologists examine the ethnic identities of transnational migrants in their diasporic experiences and often disregard the relevance of language, linguists investigate the strategies used in the construction of ethnic identities via social interaction but might neglect the role of cultural practices. In presenting an overview of ethnic identity studies and the literature about Italian immigrant groups in Australia, this chapter discusses the limitations of previous studies, including the dominant tendency to consider ‘the Italians’ as a uniform group, and the proclivity to evaluate a group’s ethnic identity through a quantitative analysis that disregards the emic approach (and consequently does not foreground the participants and their voices), or through the opposite, an ethnographic observation that focuses merely on the emicity of the ‘objects of study’.
In this chapter, I extend the discussion of the sites and practices to the community network. The network, especially the weight of its expectations and worldviews, and the degree to which individuals participate in its social, cultural, familial and religious practices, seems to contribute to a stronger sense of ethnic identity. Emblematic is the family alliance of comparatico among certain Australian families originating from the same Calabrian areas of origin. This cultural practice appears to link a number of the participating families who conform to and share certain practices and expectations (and these families report having a ‘more traditional’ identity). The socio-economic modus vivendi of this network— made up of assistance, obligations, social visits, gift exchange and gossip— encapsulated within sharing the same ‘feel for the game’ (Bourdieu 1986) keeps the families and the wider circle together and contributes to a sense of collective ethnic identity. The chapter presents the genealogies of the participating families who are bound by comparatico.
Italian migrants, as well as diverse migrant groups, brought with them cultural practices and a way of life, which are nowadays part of the multicultural Australian built environment and society. This research study focuses on the external yards of domestic dwellings built in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Brisbane by the Italian migrants. Namely, it is argued that the external yards of migrants’ houses are embedded by cultural meanings. The research study is of a qualitative nature and, as primary sources of data, uses (1) semi-structured interviews, (2) photo-elicitation interviews and (3) focus group discussion, which were conducted both in Australia with 21st-generation Italian migrants, and in Italy with 10 informants indigenous to the Veneto region, where they built their homes. Visual data about the houses were collected with (4) photographs and drawings. This paper explores the activities occurring inside migrants’ houses in Brisbane, highlighting the meaning of the activities and the settings where these activities are performed. Through the study of these meanings, it is revealed that the various activities are expressions of the culture, as an accepted way of doing things and/or a way of life, of the country of origin of the respondents.
Forty-one years on from Huber’s study exploring the assimilation of Italian-Australians, an increasing trend towards ethnic revival can be observed among the third generation of immigrants. Drawing on a case study of a family originating from Calabria in the 1950s and now living in Adelaide, South Australia, I find a widespread intergenerational identification of ethnicity as ‘being Italian’, which has different meanings across the three generations, depending on the individual’s phenomenological perception of being thrown into the world. A pivotal role in this shift of ethnic identity is played by what I refer to as institutional positionality, the individuals’ perceptions of the position of their ethnic ‘being in the world’. By merging sociology of migration, including the Bourdieusian conceptual apparatus of capital, with Heidegger’s existential theory, a reflexive framework is developed that takes into account the relevance of ontology in the field of migration studies.
The present paper discusses the concept of “double absence” and its legacy across three generations of participants. It seeks to illustrate the impact of this cognitive condition in relation to participants’ personal, interactional, and institutional social fields. Specifically, the study attempts to frame a reflexive picture extrapolated from participants who in their narratives deliberately reported certain incidents that might have shaped, diachronically, their ethnic identity across generations. In particular, the paper focuses on how the first generation of participants manifests a condition of feeling “absent” which appears to be twofold: from the country of origin and from Australia. The second generation, in turn, appears to present a condition of liminality, originated through growing up between two worlds (the one of their immigrant parents and the Australian one). The third generation, because of a perceived positive evaluation of their ethnic background from the “dominant” society, appears to manifest their ethnic identity openly. A pivotal role seems to be played by the amount of cultural capital accumulated by individuals and their perceptions of what Gramsci would call the senso comune, the “common sense” of the dominant society, which might shape individuals’ ethnic identity: specifically, their positional-ity, in terms of their ethnic perceptions of “being in the world.”.
The paper provides a discussion on the concept of “double absence” and its legacy among participants originating from Calabria, Italy. It illustrates the impact of such an embodied affective state in light of race-ethnic relations perceived intergenerationally. While the first generation of participants manifest a condition of feeling “absent”, the second generation present a condition of “liminality”, as a result of a socialization process between “the world” of their immigrant parents and the Australian one. The third generation, due to a perceived positive evaluation about their ethnic background, manifests its ethnicity proudly. A pivotal role is played by the amount of cultural capital accumulated by the participants, dynamics of assimilation and the exogenous pressures the participants perceived from the “common sense” of the dominant society, as Gramsci terms it. Individuals’ ethnic identity appears to be shaped by their institutional positionality, which is their ethnic perception of “being in the world”.
This paper examines second-generation Italian Australian constructions of ethnicity through longitudinal ethnographic analysis. Original data for this research were collected with second-generation Italian-Australian youth in 1985–1986 and follow-up research was conducted with the same informants more than three decades later. Our findings lead us to critique Herbert Gans’s concept of symbolic ethnicity, which suggests that ethnicity among second and subsequent generations is superficial and that once it disappears from the public realm it is rendered symbolic and not real. We argue that this concept overlooks the important role of family and intimate culture in constructions of ethnicity. It also fails to acknowledge the powerful role of symbols in identity formation. We argue that anthropological notions of “intimate culture” examined through the lens of “familial habitus” are more useful concepts to explain the continuing importance of ethnicity in the lives of second-generation Italian Australians.
Following from the previous chapter, this fourth and conclusive chapter of Part I shall look at the presence of ‘ndrangheta clans outside of Italy. It will present and describe the importance of family ties and migration routes for ‘ndrangheta settlements, with the specific cases of Germany and Switzerland in Europe and, outside of Europe, with reference to the cases of Canada and Australia. In particular, this chapter shall look at different movements of ‘ndrangheta clans, their structures and their relationships with Calabrian clans, and their activities and their reputation abroad.
This paper is an ethnographic exploration of a seldom-discussed ‘micro’ dimension of transnational studies, the practices of long-distance family relations and aged care. The importance of time as a key variable in transnational research is demonstrated through comparisons of the care exchanges of three cohorts of Italian migrants in Australia and their kin in Italy. A focus on ‘transnationalism from below’, the more quotidian and domestic features of transmigrant experience, highlights the importance of considering the role of homeland kin and communities in discussions of migration. The analysis of transnational care-giving practices illustrates that migrancy is sometimes triggered by the need to give or receive care rather than the more commonly assumed ‘rational’ economic motivations. Transnational lives are thus shaped by the ‘economies of kinship’, which develop across changing state (‘macro’), community (‘meso’) and family migration (‘micro’) histories, including, in particular, culturally constructed notions of ‘ideal’ family relations and obligations, as well as notions of ‘successful’ migration and ‘licence to leave’.
In this paper we outline some key aspects of the relationship between ethnicity and social capital in contemporary British society. This is a question that has begun to attract a good deal of attention in recent times, particularly in the context of public debate about the changing position of ethnic minority groups and migrant communities within an increasingly multicultural society. We begin by looking at the ways in which the relationship between ethnicity and social capital has been conceptualised. We then explore the ways that the notion of social capital has begun to shape policy debates about ethnicity and families. In doing so we seek to highlight the limitations of existing accounts and the kinds of questions that need to be addressed in conceptual and empirical research.
This paper reviews the origins and definitions of social capital in the writings of Bourdieu, Loury, and Coleman, among other authors. It distinguishes four sources of social capital and examines their dynamics. Applications of the concept in the sociological literature emphasize its role in social control, in family support, and in benefits mediated by extrafamilial networks. I provide examples of each of these positive functions. Negative consequences of the same processes also deserve attention for a balanced picture of the forces at play. I review four such consequences and illustrate them with relevant examples. Recent writings on social capital have extended the concept from an individual asset to a feature of communities and even nations. The final sections describe this conceptual stretch and examine its limitations, I argue that, as shorthand for the positive consequences of sociability, social capital has a definite place in sociological theory. However, excessive extensions of the concept may jeopardize its heuristic value.
In terms of our national identity who we are and are judged to be in a particular context depends on how well our claims are regarded by those around us. Being considered not 'one of us' means being an outsider whether one wants to be or not. National identity may lead ultimately to social inclusion or exclusion. Using mainly 2005 survey data, this paper explores cultural markers such as ethnicity, birthplace, residence, accent and ancestry regarding claims to be 'Scottish'. It shows that being born in Scotland enables people to make claims and to have them accepted. Claims to be Scottish by a white and a non-white person on the basis of various markers are received in much the same way. The cultural markers which people use to judge claims represent the raw materials of identity differences with the potential to become the basis of social exclusion under appropriate conditions.
List of Figures and Tables Contributors Spiritual Kinship and Godparenthood: an Introduction G.Alfani & V.Gourdon PART I: THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD Immigrants and Formalisation of Social Ties in Early Modern Italy G.Alfani Ecclesiastical Godparenthood in Early Modern Murcia A.Irigoyen Godparenthood and Social Networks in an Italian Rural Community: Nonantola, Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries G.Alfani & C.Munno Godparenthood and Social Relationships in France under the Old Regime: Lyons as a Case Study E.Couriol PART II: GODPARENTHOOD FROM THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TO THE AGE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION What's in a Name? Choosing Kin Godparents in Nineteenth Century Paris V.Gourdon Spiritual Kinship, Political Mobilization and Social Cooperation: a Swiss Alpine valley in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries S.Guzzi PART III: REFORMED GODPARENTHOOD Kin, Neighbours or Prominent Persons? Godparenthood in a Finnish Rural Community in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century K-M.Piilahti Who Wants to be a Godparent? Baptisms in a Lutheran Church in Paris, 1755-1804 T.Ericsson PART IV: EASTERN EUROPE AND EUROPEANS ABROAD Godparenthood in the Russian Orthodox Tradition: Custom against the Law M.Muravyeva The French in Gold Rush San Francisco and Spiritual Kinship A.Foucrier Notes Bibliography
Using data from the 1986 Census this paper examines the patterns of intermarriage of the Italian-born, who constitute one of the largest non- English speaking groups in Australia. We also examine regional variations in the rate of intermarriage between the Italian-born and people born in Australia and other birthplace groupings. The ethnic composition of the Australian population has been changed by post-war migration and this has led to increased social interaction between diverse groups. It has been found that direct and continuing contact between groups with different cultural heritages results in an increased rate of intermarriage. However, this rate varies, and we found that the Italian-born and other southern European groups have significantly higher rates of in-marriage than British and north and east Europeans. The findings show that Italians in urban areas have higher rates on in-marriage than those in rural areas, due to age and gender differences in migration streams, which lead to a shortage of potential partners of similar ethnic background in non-metropolitan areas.
Fictive kin, defined as family-type relationships, based not on blood or marriage but rather on religious rituals or close friendship ties, constitutes a type of social capital that many immigrant groups bring with them and that facilitates their incorporation into the host society. We describe three types of fictive kin systems in different immigrant populations and argue that their functions are similar across various ethnic groups and types of fictive kin relationships. Fictive kin systems expand the network of individuals who provide social and economic capital for one another and thereby constitute a resource to immigrants as they confront problems of settlement and incorporation. While anthropologists have long noted systems of fictive kin in premodern and modernizing societies, sociologists have paid little attention to fictive kin networks. We argue, however, that systems of fictive kin constitute an important part of the social networks that draw immigrants to a particular locale and provide them with the material and social support that enables them to become incorporated into a new and often hostile society. Data are derived from interviews with informants from various immigrant groups in Houston, Texas and from a Yoruba community in Brooklyn, New York.
Founded upon church rites, the ties of the compadrazgo differ from other relationships in that their irreducible 'substance' is spiritual affinity. As the bonds are woven into a social system, however, they assume secular functions. Although these practical tasks of the complex vary by society, they should be comprehended in part as a manifestation of the sacred relationship, for the spiritual backing legitimates, transforms, and confers a special meaning upon their secular nature, just are as they provide one realisation of the spiritual. This interplay of the sacred and the social in the compadrazgo can be seen in the rules for choosing godparents. One norm, a prohibition upon parents sponsoring their children, is now a church rule, but it seems to have arisen from folk practices. A second, the prohibition on choice reversal, appears to be a folk deduction from church theology. Both selection patterns bear a similarity to those of asymmetric alliance.
Using an ethnographic account of weddings and network activities among Italo-Australian youth in Perth, and, in particular, a symbolic analysis of garters and bouquets, this paper explores the intersections of ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and reviews social scientific theories of ethnic identity and cultural transmission. By investigating the double standard-where men are free to be sexually active and women are not-it confronts some of the stereotypes about 'second generation Australians' and 'culture clash', female oppression and the control of sexuality. Of particular concern is the way that some Italo-Australian women perceive sexual freedom in Australian society. The paper argues that the moral community represented by the youth network and, in particular, the challenges posed by it to the traditional model of female honour, allow for significant generational changes in the construction of ethnic identity. By analysing how identities are constructed and articulated across difference, and how 'this kind of relativising' is 'embodied in the habitus [cf. Bourdieu 1977] of the second generation' (Bottomley 1992a: 132), the paper explodes homogeneous conceptions of what is Italian, and ltalo-Australian culture.
Globalization is not a new process. It is an acceleration of changes induced by the post-industrial revolution in transport and communication. The rapid growth of population in less developed countries combines with a reduction in barriers to migration from formerly authoritarian regimes to induce mobility. Economic inequality combines with demographic pressures and environmental crises to generate ethnic conflict and terrorist threats. Wealthier countries are placing restrictions on the admission of those seeking to improve their economic prospects and/or to escape persecution. Despite the number of asylum seekers in Europe and North America, African and Asian countries bear the greatest burden of refugees. Temporary migration, business travel and tourism have added to the numbers crossing state boundaries, making effective control difficult. It is concluded that recommendations made by the Commission on Global Governance should be implemented without delay.
This article deals with continuity and change in immigrant families, focusing on the caring practices of the adult children of Italian migrants in the UK. Looking at motherhood, care for the elderly and the management of kin relations at a distance, the paper explores how values and norms get transmitted and transformed across the generations. The article shows both continuity and change in norms and values about care, and argues that change occurring in immigrant families is not necessarily a move from 'tradition' to 'modernity' or from 'ethnic' to 'mainstream'. Motherhood is changing and acquiring a renewed value for second-generation women who are now putting it before paid work, contrary to first-generation women who tended to combine it with full-time work. In terms of intergenerational relations, the analysis shows that, despite the tensions sometimes occurring between parents and children, reciprocal bonds across the generations remain very strong, with children providing care for their ageing parents while at the same time receiving various forms of support from them. Finally, the paper shows how, as a result of their upbringing and their personal choices, second-generation women continue to be involved, as were their parents, in having to manage kin relationships at a distance.
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This article studies social relationships in the early-eighteenth-century missions on the Caraballo Mountains in Luzon. Actors in the region interpreted these relationships in terms of kinship in the wider indigenous sense of the word. Nonconsanguineous persons could become and stay kindred through everyday practices in friendship and maguinoo, baptismal godparenthood and compadrazgo, Christian catechism, community leadership, and ancestor worship. Instead of resorting to cultural generalizations based on present-day anthropological studies or precolonial accounts, this article adopts an inductive approach and focuses on the social interactions themselves, especially on how the actors described how they lived and constructed these affective experiences on a day-to-day basis.
The testing and examination history in China can be traced back to the imper- ial period nearly two thousand years ago. The existence of English language testing (tests), on the other hand, has a much shorter history. These English tests, developed and administered over the past 20 years, however, are taken by billions of learners of the English language in China. To many of these learners, doing well on these tests are the key to their academic success as well as the success of their life in general. The paper will first introduce major tests and examinations of English designed and administered in China, then provide an overview of the current research in language testing that has been conducted by Chinese researchers and published in Chinese academic journals over the past 10 years. This paper will focus on the discussion of the issues and concerns of language testing within the Chinese context.
British empirical analyses investigating the relationship between ethnicity and social capital tend to highlight the views and experiences of adult minority ethnic individuals. In contrast the experiences of young people remain an under developed, but growing, research area. Our interest in this special issue stems from the desire to promote young people's voices in public and policy debates, particularly those from minority ethnic groups and communities, and to bring to the fore their experiences. Drawing on empirical research conducted in the Caribbean, England, Finland, Italy and Northern Ireland, the collection of articles explores the social capital of young people across diverse ethnic and cultural settings. We draw on theories of ethnicity and social capital to explore the ways in which they might be utilised as social resources by young people. We consider how ethnicity and cultural belonging might be regarded as both positive and negative forms of social capital among young people. We also critically reflect on ideas about social capital and ethnicity to assess the extend to which new forms of identities, networks and participation are emerging in the real life contexts of young people belonging to cultural and ethnic minority communities.
This article analyzes social norms regulating the selection of godparents in Italy and France. Based on Vatican statistics and European Values Study responses, the vast majority of children in Catholic Europe are baptized and birth rituals are considered important even by nonbelievers. Moreover, the dominant custom of selecting godparents from among kinsmen is a recent development, based on historical data. A new survey about the selection of godparents in Italy and France, conducted for this study, shows that godparents are chosen not for religious, but for social-relational reasons. Selection of kinsmen is the norm, with uncles and aunts being the majority choice. For Italy, choice determinants are explored by means of multinomial regressions. The results are contrasted with demographic change to show that in lowest-low fertility countries current godparenthood models are bound to disappear.
Compadrazgo is an exhaustively documented institution from a normative and functional perspective, but recent analyses have been invigorated by several investigators trying to develop conceptual frameworks and hypotheses more appropriate to the main currents of contemporary ethnological theory. This study of an urban compadrazgo examines godparent choices (N = 339) with respect to certain social and spatial distance variables and discusses the significance of the findings to recent theoretical developments.
Piecing together evidence from the historian, the archivist, the political scientist, and the ethnographer, Dr. Moss, in the C.S.A.S. Distinguished Lecture, describes the changing southern Italian family. In this brief essay he describes the traditional family as one adapted to a medieval feudal society that must now face the task of adjusting to an urban and industrialized society. The question of the survival of the unit is left unaswered but the reader is left with a real understanding of the dynamics of family life in South Italy; both yesterday and today.
The ritual coparent relationship in a South Italian village is examined against a background of interpersonal relationships characterized by atomism and familism. The integrative potential of the relationship is stressed by comparing it with kinship, friendship, and reciprocity bonds and by quantitatively examining the actual types of social units joined by this relationship.
Cet article developpe une perspective historique des determinants du capital social aux Etats-Unis, en s'appuyant sur les travaux de Robert Putnam et de Michael Woolcock. En particulier, il reintroduit l'Etat, le pouvoir, la politique et l'ideologie dans la formation historique du capital social
Social capital has become one of the most popular topics in public health research in recent years. However, even after a decade of conceptual and empirical work on this subject, there is still considerable disagreement about whether bonding social capital is a collective resource that benefits communities or societies, or whether its health benefits are associated with people, their personal networks and support. Using data from the 2000 and 2002 Health Survey for England this study found that, in line with earlier research, personal levels of social support contribute to a better self-reported health status. The study also suggests that social capital is additionally important for people's health. In both datasets the aggregate social trust variable was significantly related to self-rated health before and after controlling for differences in socio-demographics and/or individual levels of social support. The results were corroborated in the second dataset with an alternative indicator of social capital. These results show that bonding social capital collectively contributes to people's self-rated health over and above the beneficial effects of personal social networks and support.