Family Forms and Domestic Service in Southern Italy From the Seventeenth To the Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

The relationship between form of household and the distribution of servants is examined for a sample of forty communities spread throughout mainland southern Italy for the period ranging from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The link between the nuclear family household system and the presence of widespread life course service, found elsewhere in Europe, is not found in this area. Southern Italy was characterized by a nuclear family household system, yet service as a stage of the life course was generally uncommon. Servants were largely female and involved women of all ages.