The aim of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of “spiritual kinship” in the Bohemian countryside as a system of social ties which were established and/or strengthened by godparenthood and confirmation sponsorship.
The research will be based on Catholic parish register of births and confirmation evidence from several markets towns ...
(Show more)The aim of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of “spiritual kinship” in the Bohemian countryside as a system of social ties which were established and/or strengthened by godparenthood and confirmation sponsorship.
The research will be based on Catholic parish register of births and confirmation evidence from several markets towns and villages located in the south Bohemia. It will be focused especially on the 19th century as the period of general modernization of the country side.
The paper works on two main theoretical assumptions: The attitude of inhabitants to the church ceremonies reflects their mentality, and the institution of ritual kinship has a great research potential for reconstruction of social ties in the rural environment.
The attention will be paid to the system of choice of godparents and sponsors among the members of rural society by the parents of new-borns in the case of baptism or by young people themselves in the case of confirmation.
An important factor which the paper will focus on is the participation of family members in baptismal and confirmation ceremonies. The rituals were often connected with repetition and therewith also with a constant strengthening of relations among the families, godparents and confirmation sponsors. From the growing familiarization of godparenthood and sponsorship, we can infer how the family has changed in the course of time and how it became closed towards the others. The supplicants of confirmation could use of the opportunity to make a new spiritual relative or they might ask their godparents or other kin as their confirmation sponsors.
Equal participation of godfathers and godmothers in baptisms and their influence on the future life of baptized children refer to a distinct gender aspect of godparenthood. The same can be said about confirmation. The proportion of matrilineal relatives among godparents and sponsors testifies value of matrilineal kinship, which is sometimes historically underestimated. From the representation of female godparents and sponsors, we can also infer a distinct feminisation of vernacular religion.
It is vital to follow all abovementioned topics in connection with diverse social background and time-conditioned trends changing during the period of the analysis.
Referencies:
Markéta SKOREPOVÁ, Le parrainage en Bohême dans le milieu rural, du XVIe au XIXe siècle, Histoire, Économie & Société 37, 2018, Vol. 4, pp. 106-119.
Markéta SKOREPOVÁ, Orphaned children in Bohemian rural society in the first half of the nineteenth century: care, co-residence and inheritance practices, in: Nicoleta Roman (ed.), Orphans and abandoned children in European history. Sixteenth to twentieth centuries, London-New York 2018, pp. 219-250.
Markéta SKOREPOVÁ, Krty a kmotrovství ve farnosti Nový Rychnov v 19. století / Baptism and Godparenthood in Nový Rychnov Parish in the 19th Century, Historická demografie 42, 2018, pp. 43-63.
Markéta SKOREPOVÁ, Kmotrovství jako badatelský problém. K sociálním dejinám raného novoveku a 19. století / Godparenthood Relationships as a Research Topic. On the Social History Both of the Early Modern Age and the 19th Century, ?eský ?asopis historický 114, 2016, pp. 58–82.
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