ABSTRACT

The present contribution starts from the debate about kinship as a social institution in medieval Europe initiated by Jack Goody's pioneering anthropological work in the 1980s and drawn upon by historians and anthropologists alike. We focus on the aspect of the allegedly systematic separation of kinship from the organization of memory of the dead brought about by the establishment of Christianity. However, throughout the European Middle Ages families did not completely cede memorial tasks to religious institutions. Rather, they re-affirmed memorial bonds to religious institutions by legal arrangements and through family members within these communities, just as kinship continued to play a key role in medieval political organization. Given their social heterogeneity medieval cities provide a rich documentation of networks across ties of family, kinship, friends, and clients that intersected with more institutionalized communities (parish churches, monasteries, hospitals). People bestowed economic benefits on these communities in return for their members' “eternal” prayer for the donators' souls. This created mutual bonds both between kin and religious communities. The ensuing forms of belonging were part of a more complex frame of social exchange, as families used the same institutions as “hubs” to corroborate social and political relations to their peers. These bonds would intersect with ties between representatives of kin groups with positions in key political organizations such as city councils. A further clue to understanding these relations is gender. Economic transactions and related memorial practices feature a considerable number of female actors underlining the salience of bilateral kin relations and practices of property devolution.

摘要

目前的贡献始于 1980 年代 Jack Goody 开创性的人类学工作发起的中世纪欧洲关于亲属关系作为社会制度的辩论，并受到历史学家和人类学家的借鉴。我们关注由基督教的建立所带来的所谓的亲属关系与死者记忆组织系统分离的方面。然而，在整个欧洲中世纪，家庭并没有完全将纪念任务交给宗教机构。相反，他们通过法律安排和这些社区内的家庭成员重申了与宗教机构的纪念联系，正如亲属关系在中世纪政治组织中继续发挥关键作用一样。鉴于中世纪城市的社会异质性，它们提供了丰富的家庭关系网络文档，与更制度化的社区（教区教堂、修道院、医院）相交的亲属、朋友和客户。人们为这些社区提供经济利益，以换取其成员为捐赠者灵魂的“永恒”祈祷。这在亲属和宗教社区之间建立了相互联系。随之而来的归属形式是更复杂的社会交换框架的一部分，因为家庭使用与“中心”相同的机构来证实与同龄人的社会和政治关系。这些纽带将与在市议会等重要政治组织中担任职务的亲属团体代表之间的关系交叉。理解这些关系的另一个线索是性别。