The family in Bahia, Brazil, 1870-1945

This History Of The Brazilian Family In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries Studies The Relationship Between The Informal Institution Of The Family And Such Formal Social Institutions As Medicine, The Law, Organized Politics, And The Church. The Author Focuses Primarily On Middle- And Upper-class Families (for Whom Adequate Documentation Is Available) And Shows The Change From A Patriarchal Model Of The Family To One That Was More Conjugal And Nuclear, A Change Necessitated By An Insecure And Urbanizing Economy. Nevertheless, Bahian Families Maintained Many Traditional Values And Traditional Kin Networks.--book Jacket. The Author Examines The Daily Life And Dynamics Of Households, Including What Is Known About Lower-class Families, Where Consensual Arrangements Were The Norm. He Looks At The History Of The Medical Profession, The Legal Profession, And The Catholic Church, And He Describes The Attempts Of Each Group To Mobilize The Family For Its Own Political, Social, And Cultural Ends. The Author Argues That Family Ideology--and Families Themselves--resisted And Transformed The Efforts Of These Institutions To Impose Their Will.--book Jacket. The Book Also Deals With The Changes And Continuities In Bahian Attitudes And Beliefs About Courtship, Honor, And The Place Of Women, As Well As The Ways In Which Bahians Projected A Familial Ethic Onto Social Relations Outside The Home. Within Families, Conduct Was Governed By A Belief In The Traditional Rituals Of Life In The Family Circle: Weekly Family Dinners At The Table Of An Elder Relative, Residence In Family Compounds Around An Old Mansion (or In Several Apartments Of A Single Building), Nepotism In Public Bureaucracies, And The Management Of Both Small And Large Businesses By Families And Their Relatives. Although These Patterns Of Family Life Were Transformed Over Time, This Study Demonstrates That Such Traditions Did Survive, Even Thrive, Well Into The Twentieth Century.--book Jacket. Dain Borges. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [381]-412) And Index. Frontmatter Note on Orthography, Naming Conventions, and Currency (page ix) Introduction (page 1) 1. Bahia Society, 1870-1945 (page 10) 2. Home Life (page 46) 3. Medicine and Families (page 85) 4. The Law, Political Reforms, and the Family (page 112) 5. Church and Family (page 152) 6. Common Sense (page 186) 7. Mobility and Family Strategies (page 237) Conclusion (page 274) Appendix (page 283) Glossary (page 291) Notes (page 297) Bibliography (page 381) Index (page 413) Studies the relationship in 19th- and 20th-century Brazil between the informal institution of the family and such formal social institutions as medicine, law, politics and the Church. The author argues that families resisted and transformed the efforts of these institutions to impose their will.