Căsătoria în nord-vestul Transilvaniei (a doua jumătate a secolului XIX - începutul secolului XX). Condiţionări exterioare şi strategii maritale

Marriage in North-Western Transylvania (2nd Half of the 19th Century – Beginning of the 20th Century). External Conditionings and Marital Strategies In the latter half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in north-western Transylvania there was a traditional rural society, except for some urban centres and their neighbouring areas (the urban character is also proved by the analysis of the marital behaviour). The major events in the family life, such as baptism, marriage (including the prenuptial relations of the partners) and funerals were strictly supervised by the community. The relationship family – community was deep. It could not be perceived through a fragmented and segmented analysis. From the perspective of the family, the community was the general framework providing the “pattern”. On the other hand, the community finds its emotions and sensitivity in the crucial moments of family life. Documentary sources and methodological benchmarks We have used several categories of documentary sources in our survey. We have the information on the population in north-western Romania due to the ecclesiastic notes (in the parish records or reports and the bishopric notes); on the other hand, we have the information provided by the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian state. This information is completed by references made by several researchers and others that approach directly or tangentially the issue of the population structure and demographic phenomena in the region. The sources of information should be regarded and analysed carefully, as they do not directly respond to our questions. The ecclesiastic information gives a relatively clear image of the family and society. On the other hand, the information has to be analysed carefully; if possible, the items should be compared with other pieces of information coming from other sources, as most of the times it refers only to the parishioners of that particular confession; last but not least, we can notice a certain subjectivism when registering the data. Undoubtedly, the most important information is due to the ecclesiastic sources. The church records are the only ones that can provide an image of the rural family, at least for the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The church notes that are fundamental sources for our research can be divided into two categories: 1. the annual parish civil status records and reports; 2. funds of church authorities, notes and minutes written down by bishops. If we analyse the few official censuses carried out by the Austrian and the Austro-Hungarian states for a while, we will try to show the demographic aspects and their development. In our opinion, we consider that this would avoid the shortcomings involved by the research of church funds (these funds – we refer to the civil status records mainly – are often incomplete and subjective; many of them were lost, and so on); at the same time, this will make it possible to place in a general demographic context all the population belonging to the localities in the area. Methodologically, the first phase of our research consisted of the preparation of the documents investigation strategy, as expected. This material referring to the inhabitants in north-western Romania in the latter half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was kept in the National Archives in Oradea and Satu Mare due to the parish notes (we have the parish civil status records and the annual reports of the parishes, as well as other funds of the bishoprics) and other information provided by the official statistics of the time. In our research, we consider the fact that we approach the area of ecclesiastic entities, as most of our sources for the 19th century belong to the church. This imposes a stress on the confession and its importance. Besides confession, an aspect that we wish to underline is ethnie. However, the documents we have do not allow us to exactly establish the ethnicity of the inhabitants in the area. Even if we want to stress ethnie only, we will not be able to do so, as not even the official censuses in the 19th century use nationality as a variable, the only element being mother tongue. The parish civil status records or reports facilitate the establishment of ethnic identity of a person to a smaller extent; the main criterion to classify population was confession. In the last case, by establishing a relation between ethnie and confession, there is a greater error risk in our research. The ecclesiastic documents are the only ones allowing us to make a research of the phenomenon in the sense we have in mind. It is important to see the topic through the marital process, mixed inter-confessional or interethnic marriages. This is much easier to analyse in the ecclesiastic documents; thus we can establish a connection (obviously from this point of view) between ethnie and confession, or between confession and ethnie. The ethno-confessional and socio-professional aspects bring to the foreground certain constraints on making a mixed family (we have considered, as mentioned above, mixed inter-confessional marriages and hence we will deduce the interethnic ones). These constraints have their origin in the family, Church and community. At the same time, we have to consider the fact that we refer to the area of a mainly rural area. This is a traditional environment; here the social constraints are powerful and a mixed marriage is difficult to be accepted. If we research the parish records, we cannot avoid thinking at the possibility to look into the information by following certain techniques and methods. At a first stage of our research, we only make a non-nominative analysis; we centralise practically information gathered from records depending on the nature and topic of the research. By using such a methodology, we get highly important information on a general level referring to the three demographic events in the life of humankind. At the same time, we discover different demographic behaviours, social trends, ethno-confessional determinisms, and so on, tightly related to one of the registered events (baptism, marriage, and decease). For instance, in case of the married couple, we get information such as: place of birth (important to see the spatial mobility, the area of partner selection), youth religion, previous civil status, age at marriage, etc. Beyond this research on the civil status records, we should resort to other documentary sources too and implicitly to a more complex methodology. From the methodological point of view, when dividing the material, we considered the fact that censuses had been carried out (organised by the state) and these years were witness-pillars in our investigation, as they provided a better knowledge on the ethno-confessional realities (and not only). We also have the bishopric schemata. For these years, we have statistics concerning the structure of the population in point of confession, ethnie and from a socio-professional point of view as well. All these supported us in building a background for different familial and individual behaviours and to correlate information coming from ecclesiastic sources and more. In our investigation, the main stress has been the study and analysis of marital strategies, of different community-family behaviours, determinisms and constraints when a marriage was achieved. Through different constraints and determinisms obviously generated by the possibility to choose, marriage was extremely relevant in settling behavioural laws (if they ever existed!?). The aspect of the marital market corroborated with ethno-confessional and socio-professional realities provided particularity to marriage as a phenomenon. Specifics were introduced by local and regional expression. Local ways, traditions and customs proved to be a strong moulding power. The analysis of the “choice” mechanism is extremely important. It has proved to be very difficult yet fruitful throughout our research. Seeking for balance and often for refuge, the community imposed on the family models to be pursued, norms and regulations that everybody was supposed to follow. Thus, the community found its expression in the family, while the family discovered its solidarity in the community. Such a reality that we intend to analyse is difficult to approach from the sole perspective of the figures. Starting from here, our endeavour imposes besides the methodology specific to historical demography whose contribution has been very useful turning to methodologies specific to connected subjects with related research focus. We mainly refer to other subjects that focus on family and the individual (anthropology, sociology, history of mentalities or imaginary, etc.). From the methodological point of view, we also have to point out that our whole endeavour has developed considering the inter-confessional delimitations and the administrative-ecclesiastic organisation. The origin of the sources and the specifics of each of the religious communities in the area have determined us to build a methodological structure helping to bring to the foreground the behaviour of all confessional entities. Thus, marriage is approached from the confessional perspective and by connection from that of ethnicity. The actual analysis on marriage is thus structured in several chapters facilitating the visualisation of the phenomenon at the level of each religious community. In our debate, we have paid attention to analysing ethno-confessional determinisms of marriage. Hence great importance is granted to mixed marriage. This may help discovering means of constraint and all kinds of determinisms exercised on youth at the time we analyse. From this perspective, the paper has an asymmetric structure purposely as it is built around the analysis of marriage as mentioned within the Greek-Catholic community. This community has been chosen precisely because it has provided the most complete image on the topic: the Greek-Catholic community was spiritually related to the Catholic community, yet preserving Orthodox features; at the same time, this community was mainly made up of Romanian ethnics. Legal framework and collective mental context at marriage Referring to the lay and ecclesiastic legal framework, we support the need for a flexible approach of the topic. The logic of this foray consists of the visualisation of the legal framework – rigid and impregnated with an obvious moralising discourse – on the one hand, and the image of conformism and means of adaptation of the individual, on the other hand. We have to underline that a separate survey of the lay law from the religious one would be void due to the tight cooperation between the State and the Church in the field. The State often acknowledged the matrimonial norms established by the Church. This relation seems to alter towards the end of the 19th century, when the State managed to impose on the Church to respect the general civil framework. However, we cannot speak of a change in the content; it is more a change of the form in which this matter was shown. The Church and the State still had a relatively close position. In fact, if we compare the canonical texts of the Church with the normative acts of the State, we can notice, at least in the latter half of the 19th century, a mutual influence concerning legislation referring to family life. From another point of view, the legal framework serving as basis and legal landmark for the functioning of the family as an institution underwent significant changes at the modern epoch. The marriage, as a basis of the family institution, was managed by the Church for centuries. At modern epoch however, it turned more and more under the control of the State. From this point of view, the 19th century was the time of a tight relation between the State and the Church from the point of view of family life management. The State acknowledged to the Church the right to be in charge with marrying people, with separating from bed and meal, with the divorce according to the canons of each confession. The State had the right to supervise the civil and military status, the relationship between the spouses, the inheritance, the tutelage, the issue of bringing up the children, the means of living of the spouses and many more. The Church acknowledged the involvement of the State in the major demographic issues of the individual’s life. As time went by, the State became more and more complex, while the legislation became more and more “lay”. It is true that the lay law borrowed, whether they wanted it or not, precepts and norms belonging to the church law. The modern State became lay, its institutions becoming better organised. In this context, the family proved to be one wealth of modern society, and the State had to be directly involved in its management. The frail dualism State-Church concerning family law had to suffer by imposing lay laws compelling to make all important moments in life official from a lay point of view. Beyond these regulations to which the clergy, irrespective of their confession, were highly hostile, we cannot admit the theory according to which at the time there was a clash in the cooperation between the State and the ecclesiastic institutions. The Church found the means to adapt to the new situation, while the State needed their involvement and influence on the health of the family life. The involvement of the State in the marital issues, in managing issues relating to bringing up children became a logical need. This interference of the State in the “exclusive competences” of the Church was influenced by the “shock of modernity”, by establishing behavioural premises within society. The marital laws elaborated in 1894 were the most complex laws regulating the political-church relations in the marital field in the latter half of the 19th century. Due to their clarity, they managed to put an end to the misunderstandings between the lay and clerical authorities. Moreover, they put an end to the dispute between different confessions to the advantage of the State. The civil law very clearly expressed in favour of the family and children’s interests. They were all made to better supervise the education of the individual in a moral family on which the Church had to have an influence. Marriage and collective mentality. Customary regulations. The family, its formation, the relationships between man, woman, children and relatives, as well as the relationships with the rest of the community were filtered by the “village gossip”. The need for a strong solidarity that was necessary in the unfriendly conditions at the time compelled the individuals to accept the cohabitation with other members of the family (including the extended one) and with the rest of the community. More often than not, the individual behaviour acquired the expression of the collective behaviour. Such an influence of the community was obvious in the traditional rural societies. However, in time, it became progressively diluted under the pressure of modernity. The State intervened too and imposed regulated and different norms for the family life. We can see that there were deep changes as the area integrated to an economic circuit that would lead to imposing new mutations in several economic sectors. The economic development and the dissemination of non-agricultural activities associated to urban development whose influence went growing brought about alterations in the family relations. Then, there were mutations in the relationship between the family, the domestic group and the household resources. These changes were not obvious in all localities in the region: some of them were still anchored in the traditional as the new managed to penetrate more difficultly, while major changes on the level of the collective mental could not be perceived on a short span of time. Nevertheless, under the influence of modernity, society influenced the family not only in point of form, but also insofar as its role and functions were concerned. Mentalities changed together with the form and nature of society. Family was no longer big; it did no longer accept the interference of the relatives and even less that of the community. Changes were more visible in the city; however, once the social, cultural and economic changes, they became obvious in the countryside too. The nuclear family was the new family model where interference from the outside was insignificant. As they evolved to a modern society, one can see that there was a limitation of the social role of the family, as this role was taken over by other institutions in several fields (market, State, school, and so on). Family did no longer dominate social life. However, even in modern times, family still remained a fundamental social institution with a core role: socialisation, protection, consumption, reproduction. One can see the reduction of the size of the family by restraining the number of a couple’s children and by quasi-generalisation of the nuclear family. Small families were more apt for the social mutations that modernity involved. The reduction of the size of the family brought about important changes in lifestyle, in family behaviours. Another important effect of modernity was related to matrimonial mobility, to the decrease of parental authority of the clan in general, and the growth of the role of the individual in deciding the moment of marriage and on the partner. Due to the transfer of these functions of the family to other social institutions, the economic and political reasons of marriage started to lose importance. Although the reasons relating to wealth played a less important role, the similitude of the socio-cultural statuses of the spouses was still dominant in making couples. Analysis of marital strategies at different religious communities The starting point of the family is marriage. It is the moment when the most important social group of society is established. The community celebrates through marriage the victory over time and in this way human sensitivity is getting closer to the “intended perfection”. By means of different regulating mechanisms, the community is deeply involved in the life of the individuals at marriage, at the wedding. Starting with this reality, marriage has become in this research the reference point to which we related the whole debate started on the relationship community – family. The two are taught and prepared to accept the hierarchies assuring the community order. At each marriage, the defining elements of the interpersonal relationships required by the community are repeated not only to the two people involved, but to the rest of the community. It was in the family that all behaviour norms relating to the community were to be implemented. At the time analysed by us, the families of young people did no longer fully control the act of marriage. If previously marriage had been decided exclusively by the families of the spouses, when feelings were on the second place, the youth had the opportunity to choose themselves on their partner. Despite this radical change in mentality, the community still had the means to control the act of making a new family. This control was more obvious in the country, where the features of a traditional existence were more powerful; it was seen least in the city, where relations between the family (usually nuclear) and the community were built on different norms. If we approach marriage from the point of view of the confessional and ethnic conditioning, we get to an analysis of the mixed marriages phenomenon. In fact, the analysis of the ethno-confessional and socio-professional determinisms and of other types of community or individual conditions can be easily carried out in the case of mixed marriages. The central point of our research is the analysis of Romanians’, Hungarians’, and Germans’ marital behaviours without ignoring the image of this phenomenon at other populations in the area. We suggest to begin with the analysis of the marital behaviour at different religious communities, then to get a general picture of the marital phenomenon at the whole population in the area. This survey on the marital phenomenon is made up of two great parts: one referring to the analysis of the marital strategies and the other made up of different marital determinisms and the factors able to condition the accomplishment of a marriage. The analysis of the marital strategies was carried out through a parallel study of the marital behaviour of different religious communities in the area. The ethnic and confessional diversity of the population imposes a communication and interference of different ethno-confessional communities. As these communities lived together, it was natural that this “cooperation” should be visible in case of marriage. Mixed marriage acquires in this context the form of an innate multiculturalism out of the need to live together. The “social barriers” completed the ethnic and confessional differences. These social conditionings seem to be much more powerful when it comes to an individual living in an ethnically and confessionally mixed community. In time, ethnic and confessional determinisms dilute under the modernity and personal emancipation urges. The State, more and more powerful in time, imposed itself through a lay law that promoted a new perception on the mixed marriages. In the latter half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century in the region, there was a traditional rural society, except for certain urban centres and their neighbouring areas (the urban feature is proved also by the analysis of the marital behaviour). It was a world of constraints and standards to which all individuals belonging to the group had to conform. Social deviances of any kind were regarded with scepticism. Social, moral and religious precepts were a very important issue at the time. After a research on the time of the year when marriages were organised, we can see a main void during the Easter fast and a second one during the Christmas fast. Besides religious events, field labour also influenced the choice of the date settled for marriage. There were two periods preferred for marriages: January – February and October – November. A second period would be in the latter half of spring (May – June). The three periods are separated by months when few marriages took place: 1. March-April – time when there was the Easter fast and the beginning of the agricultural season; 2. Summer months and the beginning of autumn – during the agricultural season; 3. December – fast month. A different behaviour may be noticed in the Protestant parishes, where constraints were more of a community nature (where there were mixed inter-confessional communities, out of respect for other confessions, they did not organise weddings during fasting periods). The maximal periods in the months of February and November are not so evident in the Protestant communities. Marriage ethno-confessional and socio-professional determinisms and constraints There is a consistent constraint expressed as a sort of censorship from the community and even the church. Both ecclesiastic authorities of the youth getting married had to be consulted and “convinced”. A marriage amongst youth belonging to the Greek-Catholic and Orthodox confessions was considered almost normal in certain communities. This can be explained by the fact that few parishioners could grasp the differences between the two confessions. At the same time, we have the ethnical aspect. Ethnie could not be separated in this case from confession, as both Greek-Catholics and Orthodox in the area are mostly of Romanian ethnie. These elements should be considered especially since we considered a mainly rural area, where customs “laws” are superposed over the official ones. On the other hand, in the mixed Greek-Catholic and Roman-Catholic communities, inter-confessional marriages are easier accepted on the “official” level. This is due to the fact that both confessions are under the same hierarchic authority, that is, the Holy See. In the Greek-Catholic communities, there was a low level of mixed marriages. Most marriages at the time were carried out between partners coming from within the locality, or from neighbouring localities and very seldom from far localities. In this latest case, most youngsters were looking for partners belonging to the same confession. It was not the reserve, but the fact that most of them had no opportunity to get in contact with individuals from outside the locality, or with individuals resident far from their village. So, we can also consider this impediment of the restricted area from where the marital selection was made as a constraint of the time. Another aspect that should be kept in mind is the aspiration to a certain social status. We could see that most mixed marriages with partners from another place had a socio-professional motivation, as one of the partners wanted the other’s social status. An important constraint, or, on the contrary, a strong determination against a mixed inter-confessional family came from the families. There are several cases when the parents opposed to such marriages. The boys were deprived of the right to inheritance; then, there was the notion of “immoral girl” in the eyes of the community and hence the pressure exerted over the family and then on the youngsters. Last but not least, the need to belong to a joint family with parents made young people respect the decisions imposed upon them. To separate from the family, to “turn the village against you”, was a serious fact, considering that people had to support one another. As mentioned before, a strong pressure against achieving a mixed marriage came from the church. Both parishes to which the youngsters belonged had to be consulted. In order to have a religious marriage, they needed an engagement exemption from the archpriest (they came weeks, even months late, there were situations when the marriages were not accepted, so there would be no exemption). They had to pay a large amount for the exemption, so that many youngsters could not afford to pay for it; this was often solved by clandestine “wild” marriage. However, both the State and the Church wished to stop this phenomenon, so they took steps in this area. Social mentality on the level of the community, family, church, or school, was not accepted and they did not want to disturb it. The Romanians (both Orthodox and Greek-Catholics), mostly farmers, depended on the land, so their mobility was very limited. The Romanian villages, as well as others, were closed societies. Here were preserved all the norms of traditional life. The customs were intact. We can state that this “barrier” preserved the Romanian ethnie, their school and church. We have to mention that at the time, the issue of mixed marriages generated several debates amongst the representatives of different confessions. By adopting the Austrian general Civil code (1853) and the marriage law, they tried to regulate the issue of mixed marriages. Through they laws adopted in 1894 and the establishment of civil status offices belonging to the State, they sought to put an end to the divergences amongst confessions by imposing State control over this phenomenon. Obviously, such a context influenced to a certain extent the evolution of marital strategies. Marriage was considered a fundamental, sacred, divine, non-recurring act, a sacrament, just like birth and death. Marriage was granted such a value precisely to defend family life from human whims, from heathen religious influences, so that the family might keep its economic, social, and cultural role. By analysing the confessional structure of mixed marriages carried out in the area studied by this survey, we can see a strong relation in two directions: - The first one is the spiritual affinity between the Roman-Catholics and the Greek-Catholics. No less than 40.32% (3,376 cases) of the mixed marriages discovered during our survey were concluded between partners belonging to the two Catholic confessions. - The second is the ethnic and spiritual affinity of the Orthodox and the Greek-Catholics. Out of the total number of mixed marriages, 2,518 marriages representing 30.07% were GC-O. The high rate of this kind of marriages was mainly due to national and traditional confessional affinities (several Romanians – parishioners of both confessions – could not perceive the differences between the two Romanian confessions). These were followed by GC-CH marriages (13.75% - 1,151 cases) atypical due to the “distance” between the two confessions, but that could be explained by the high rate of the two confessional communities (majority at least in the north of the region). The presence in the same area of the two great communities made them “communicate”. This phenomenon was accentuated by the “tighter link” between the Protestants and the Hungarian Greek-Catholic community existing in several localities in the area. Considered somehow normal (most of the parishioners belonging to the two confessions were Hungarian) the RC-CH marriages were the next preference expressed at the time (655 cases representing 7.82%). Ethnicity also proved to be a determining factor in the development of the marriage. The phenomenon of preserving ethnical identity is obvious in the case of both Romanian confessions. When choosing their partners from another confession, the young Greek-Catholics chose a partner of Orthodox confession to an extent of 42.95%. On the other hand, young Orthodox chose the Greek-Catholic option to an extent of 40.12%. Thus, the option of a Romanian partner was the first after their own confession in the case of both communities. As far as the Hungarians were concerned, ethnic determinism is as obvious, although not to the same extent. An ethnic affinity between the Roman-Catholics and the Protestants may be noticed in several areas we have investigated. This affinity that we are about to discuss is brought to the foreground when one of the communities was in minority as compared to a third confession (usually Romanian). The strong preservation of national identity may be noticed in the case of the Slovak communities in the area of the Barcau valley. It was the same ethnic determinism that brought together the Evangelical Germans to the Roman-Catholic ones. Due to dispersion and the strong Hungarisation process the Roman-Catholic Swabians were subject to, the preservation of ethnic identity through marriage was less possible. This was mainly due to the small number of communities of the kind; they were also subject to consanguinity. Nevertheless, in several Swabian localities in the area of Satu Mare or at Palota (Santandrei commune), there were features of a marital behaviour that supported the survival of some isolated communities. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, this world was traditional; there were few professional options, most of the inhabitants being involved in agriculture. As a consequence, when speaking about socio-professional determinism in choosing a marriage partner, we have to consider that most young people that were getting married had rural professions. On the other hand, the socio-professional component was more active in the urban area and in environments dominated by the Roman-Catholic, or Protestant, population. Despite the small number of options, we believe that socio-professional determinism was still very important. The social and professional status undoubtedly played an important role in achieving and settling a family. A large-scale survey of the phenomenon has led to the conclusion that where there were better socio-professional options, their determinism over marriage could be very important. As far as civil status was concerned, socio-professional determinism proved to be very important in several cases. Most marriages were concluded between partners getting married for the first time. The relations between the two factors acting upon marriage may be identified when debating the case of marriages involving widowers or divorcees. When a widow/widower wished to marry again, they had to take into consideration the mental context, as well as the reaction of the community. In several villages, the status of a widow/widower was considered as inferior; therefore, there were several constraints to getting married again. The first reaction was to find a widow/widower partner. However, most times there were other determining factors: size of the marital market (in small villages, where they could easily reach the consanguinity realm, as it was in several cases we analysed, widows/widowers could get married easier), the widow/widower’s material and socio-professional situation, religion, ethnie, age, number of children from the previous marriage, the different perception concerning the two sexes (widows or women getting married later than usual had smaller options than men), and so on. All these are susceptible to condition, or favour, a new marriage. If we analyse marriage from the point of view of civil status and age, we may draw the conclusion that in most villages, widows/widowers usually got married to younger people. This phenomenon was more obvious amongst men, but it could be seen amongst women, too. An older widow with a good material situation (inherited from the late partner with whom she managed to gather a certain wealth) married a much younger partner, usually unmarried, coming from a poor family. This is the image depicted by several archives. Not all widows/widowers had the “opportunity” of a good material situation. These had to accept the existing options. The age of the partners also conditioned most marriages, as expected. The average age at marriage was often very different in the case of “accidental” marriages that were strongly influenced by other determining factors amongst which the socio-professional one. Old age, usually associated with widowhood, could impose certain barriers against marriage/remarriage. A good material situation associated with a socio-professional status superior to the majority of the community were determinisms able to overcome any physical, or social, “handicaps”. *** The village was a world of constraints and standards to which all individuals belonging to the group had to conform. Social deviances of any nature were considered with scepticism, while moral and religious perceptions were defining social and societal norms at the time. The community strictly controlled the family through different “rituals” of interference in its internal affairs. It was precisely these “side-slips” that were to be avoided. In this sense, there was a whole attitude and behaviour range meant to prevent the appearance of such situations. Thus, the community regulated the whole mechanism that ensured the respect for social order and norms through constraints and determinisms. At the time, families of the two young people did no longer have full control over the act of marriage. If previously marriage had been decided exclusively by the families of the youth, in which case feelings of true love came in second, young people had the opportunity to choose their partner. Despite this radical change of mentality, community still had the gauge to control the act of forming a new family. This control was more obvious in the countryside, where the features of a traditional life were more powerful, and frailer in the city, where relations between the family (usually nuclear) and the community were based on other norms. From another perspective, the idea of couple was very relative. Ethnographical surveys have shown that the inhabitants of traditional villages were more or less united in family social life, yet they were always related to the community. The support of the community was very strong considering the omnipresent death dislocating families and making them vulnerable. Instead the community did not die and individuals’ confidence in it had to remain strong. Family was somehow the victim of this reality. However, the individual lived beyond the family, in the social community of the family group they belonged to and more. Family solidarity depended on economic crises, on the need to move for season labour; sometimes season migration was definitive. In this last case, the solidarity of the family increased the phenomenon generated by settling in a new community. There were also personal emancipation, exclusion from legacy, migration to the city, new professions, etc., all leading to a significantly increasing solidarity between the partners. Against the background of the economic changes at the end of the 19th century, a phenomenon associated with industrialisation, urbanisation and medical evolution, new deep behaviour mutations appeared. Women emancipated, their position and status acquired a new form. Against the background of the erosion of behaviour and traditional mentalities, the family changed too and led to the appearance of new forms and patterns.