Marrying Kinsmen in Pays Bigouden Sud, Brittany

Abstract

This study addresses the question of kin marriage in the Pays Bigouden Sud, an area situated in the western part of Finistère, France. Reconstitu tion of genealogies, analysis of church dispensations, and intensive fieldwork yield evidence of a time-based marriage pattern, which expresses itself in marriages between affines belonging to lines within kindreds and takes the form of re-linking (renchainement ) of lines. The consanguineous marriage rate is low and involves mainly remote kin. Though peasants in this area are not propertied, there is a pronounced social hierarchy, and between 1770 and 1860 the wealthiest peasants experience a high percentage of affinal marriages. This pattern endures for almost another century as a result not only of the presence of socio-economic hierarchy but also of the use of kindred as a pool for spouses. It is hypothesized that this affinial marriage pattern is to be found in other peasant societies, but that we lack the suitable data (extensive bilateral genealogies) to identify it.