Studies of migration rely heavily on the use of identity categories. Yet the uncritical use of su... more Studies of migration rely heavily on the use of identity categories. Yet the uncritical use of such categories has had serious negative consequences for the understanding of migration and related social processes. This chapter examines the tendency to treat often ill-defined identity categories as reflecting an external reality, and the danger of ignoring the fact that people’s identities are multiple, situational, prone to change, and affected by a variety of political power-holders.
... Amalia's tale : an impoverished peasant woman, an ambitious attorney, and a fight for jus... more ... Amalia's tale : an impoverished peasant woman, an ambitious attorney, and a fight for justice /David I. Kertzer. p. cm. ... She lived in a little hamlet called Oreglia, part of the larger mountain town of Vergato, whose hamlets lay scattered across a vast area. ...
Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of the Roman Catholic Church in encouragi... more Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of the Roman Catholic Church in encouraging popular acceptance of the Italian Fascist regime’s antisemitic campaign and its “racial laws” (effective from 1938 to 1943). Investigation of major Italian Catholic daily newspapers, the Fascist press, and Italian and French diplomatic archives reveals how the Church communicated its support for these racial laws by distinguishing unacceptable German racism from Church-sanctioned anti-Jewish measures.
ABSTRACT Within the larger debate over Italians’ attitudes toward the decision to join the Second... more ABSTRACT Within the larger debate over Italians’ attitudes toward the decision to join the Second World War on Germany’s side, and their subsequent attitude toward fighting alongside the Nazis, the question of the role played by the Roman Catholic Church remains controversial. By focusing on Italy’s three major Catholic daily newspapers for the years 1939 to 1943, and on the behind-the-scenes actions of the Fascist authorities, we here show one of the principal ways that the institutional Church communicated to Italy’s Catholics the proper attitudes to take toward the war. The active role played by the papers and their editors in urging Italian Catholic support for the Axis cause is made clear. We examine the Bologna-based L’Avvenire d’Italia, the Rome-based L’Avvenire, and the Milan-based L’Italia, along with a variety of government and church-related archives.
The role played by Christianity and Christian churches in the demonization of the Jews by the Ger... more The role played by Christianity and Christian churches in the demonization of the Jews by the German National Socialist and Italian Fascist regimes remains a subject of intense controversy. The historiography at the base of this debate has been largely rooted in research on either Germany or Italy, yet comparative empirical study is particularly well-suited to allow broader generalizations. Such work is especially valuable given the very different relationships the two regimes maintained with the churches. This article identifies similarities and differences in the Nazi and Italian Fascist uses of Christianity in their efforts to turn their populations against the Jews through examination of two of their most influential popular anti-Semitic propaganda vehicles: La difesa della razza in Italy and Der Stürmer in Germany. Both mixed pseudoscientific racial theories with arguments based on Christian religious authority, and both presented themselves as defenders of Christianity against...
The link between family systems and demographic behavior has recently been the subject of importa... more The link between family systems and demographic behavior has recently been the subject of important new theoretical and empirical work by anthropologists and others. Among the key foci for this work has been the link between coresidential arrangements following marriage and young wives’ status and power, and the impact this and gender preferences typical of certain family systems have on fertility and on infant and child mortality. To date, this new work has focused largely on East and South Asia. We here take advantage of the 1997 Community and Family Survey data from the Southern Region of Ethiopia to see whether any evidence of these coresidential effects on demographic outcomes can be found in an African context.
EDITORS’ N O T E 7% symposium article is based on a roundtable discussion at the annual meeting o... more EDITORS’ N O T E 7% symposium article is based on a roundtable discussion at the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, December 1989, in Washington, D. C. Ilie subject of child abandonment is attracting increasing attention among European historians and has been explored in recent booklength publication by several of the roundtable participants as well as other scholars. Although each part of the symposium article has been edited f o r purposes of integration, each, in the main, continues to reflect the author5 involvement in the session as a commentator on recent publications in the field, or, in Professor RanselS case, as a respondent to the comments. Louise A. Tilly is Professor of History and Sociology, and Chair of the Conitnittee on Historial Studies, New School f o r Social Research. Rachel G. Fuchs is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University. David I. Kertzer is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Anthropology at Bowdoin College. David L. Ransel is Professor of History at Indiana University and Editor of the American Historical Review. -
Page 1. NATIONAL BESTSELLER THE POPES AGAINST THE JEWS ,i THE VATICAN'S ROLE IN THE RISE OF ... more Page 1. NATIONAL BESTSELLER THE POPES AGAINST THE JEWS ,i THE VATICAN'S ROLE IN THE RISE OF MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM DAVID I . KERTZER VI I HOI! OK THE kll>\ //'V, <)E EM, ARM) UORTIK I "Important.. .. Fascinating.... ...
Page 1. SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 28 * NUMBER 1 * SPRING * 1972 Making a Middle... more Page 1. SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 28 * NUMBER 1 * SPRING * 1972 Making a Middle Way: Problems of Monhegan Identity1 GEORGE L. HICKS AND DAVID I. KERTZER Investigations into ...
Focusing on the industrializing, sharecropping town of Casalecchio di Reno, in northern Italy, th... more Focusing on the industrializing, sharecropping town of Casalecchio di Reno, in northern Italy, this article examines the extent to which children lived with or near grandparents, and clarifies the coresidential situation of the older segment of the population. The three-generation household, closely identified with the traditional sharecropping economy, continued to flourish in a period of industrialization and urbanization. Some of the demographic changes occuring in this period in fact acted to reinforce the practice of three-generational coresidence. At both ends of the period (1871-1921), household extension closely folio wed patrilateral principles, so that while many children lived with their patental grandparents, it was rare for children to coreside with their maternal grandparents.
Reviewed in light of evidence from the commune of Casalecchio, the Hajnal thesis and its subseque... more Reviewed in light of evidence from the commune of Casalecchio, the Hajnal thesis and its subsequent reformulations are shown to be in need of modification. With respect to the “Mediterranean marriage pattern” (postulated by Peter Laslett), the Casalecchio evidence shows a strong patrilocal tradition of postmarital residence but not a concomitant early female age at marriage, a large spousal gap, or a small proportion of people who never marry. Moreover, marriage age remained relatively high during the period of proletarianization and the proletarian segment of the community married at much the same ages as the most traditional sharecropping population. The relationship between the impact of industrialization and marriage age in particular is therefore more complex than has been hypothesized.
Studies of migration rely heavily on the use of identity categories. Yet the uncritical use of su... more Studies of migration rely heavily on the use of identity categories. Yet the uncritical use of such categories has had serious negative consequences for the understanding of migration and related social processes. This chapter examines the tendency to treat often ill-defined identity categories as reflecting an external reality, and the danger of ignoring the fact that people’s identities are multiple, situational, prone to change, and affected by a variety of political power-holders.
... Amalia's tale : an impoverished peasant woman, an ambitious attorney, and a fight for jus... more ... Amalia's tale : an impoverished peasant woman, an ambitious attorney, and a fight for justice /David I. Kertzer. p. cm. ... She lived in a little hamlet called Oreglia, part of the larger mountain town of Vergato, whose hamlets lay scattered across a vast area. ...
Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of the Roman Catholic Church in encouragi... more Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of the Roman Catholic Church in encouraging popular acceptance of the Italian Fascist regime’s antisemitic campaign and its “racial laws” (effective from 1938 to 1943). Investigation of major Italian Catholic daily newspapers, the Fascist press, and Italian and French diplomatic archives reveals how the Church communicated its support for these racial laws by distinguishing unacceptable German racism from Church-sanctioned anti-Jewish measures.
ABSTRACT Within the larger debate over Italians’ attitudes toward the decision to join the Second... more ABSTRACT Within the larger debate over Italians’ attitudes toward the decision to join the Second World War on Germany’s side, and their subsequent attitude toward fighting alongside the Nazis, the question of the role played by the Roman Catholic Church remains controversial. By focusing on Italy’s three major Catholic daily newspapers for the years 1939 to 1943, and on the behind-the-scenes actions of the Fascist authorities, we here show one of the principal ways that the institutional Church communicated to Italy’s Catholics the proper attitudes to take toward the war. The active role played by the papers and their editors in urging Italian Catholic support for the Axis cause is made clear. We examine the Bologna-based L’Avvenire d’Italia, the Rome-based L’Avvenire, and the Milan-based L’Italia, along with a variety of government and church-related archives.
The role played by Christianity and Christian churches in the demonization of the Jews by the Ger... more The role played by Christianity and Christian churches in the demonization of the Jews by the German National Socialist and Italian Fascist regimes remains a subject of intense controversy. The historiography at the base of this debate has been largely rooted in research on either Germany or Italy, yet comparative empirical study is particularly well-suited to allow broader generalizations. Such work is especially valuable given the very different relationships the two regimes maintained with the churches. This article identifies similarities and differences in the Nazi and Italian Fascist uses of Christianity in their efforts to turn their populations against the Jews through examination of two of their most influential popular anti-Semitic propaganda vehicles: La difesa della razza in Italy and Der Stürmer in Germany. Both mixed pseudoscientific racial theories with arguments based on Christian religious authority, and both presented themselves as defenders of Christianity against...
The link between family systems and demographic behavior has recently been the subject of importa... more The link between family systems and demographic behavior has recently been the subject of important new theoretical and empirical work by anthropologists and others. Among the key foci for this work has been the link between coresidential arrangements following marriage and young wives’ status and power, and the impact this and gender preferences typical of certain family systems have on fertility and on infant and child mortality. To date, this new work has focused largely on East and South Asia. We here take advantage of the 1997 Community and Family Survey data from the Southern Region of Ethiopia to see whether any evidence of these coresidential effects on demographic outcomes can be found in an African context.
EDITORS’ N O T E 7% symposium article is based on a roundtable discussion at the annual meeting o... more EDITORS’ N O T E 7% symposium article is based on a roundtable discussion at the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, December 1989, in Washington, D. C. Ilie subject of child abandonment is attracting increasing attention among European historians and has been explored in recent booklength publication by several of the roundtable participants as well as other scholars. Although each part of the symposium article has been edited f o r purposes of integration, each, in the main, continues to reflect the author5 involvement in the session as a commentator on recent publications in the field, or, in Professor RanselS case, as a respondent to the comments. Louise A. Tilly is Professor of History and Sociology, and Chair of the Conitnittee on Historial Studies, New School f o r Social Research. Rachel G. Fuchs is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University. David I. Kertzer is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Anthropology at Bowdoin College. David L. Ransel is Professor of History at Indiana University and Editor of the American Historical Review. -
Page 1. NATIONAL BESTSELLER THE POPES AGAINST THE JEWS ,i THE VATICAN'S ROLE IN THE RISE OF ... more Page 1. NATIONAL BESTSELLER THE POPES AGAINST THE JEWS ,i THE VATICAN'S ROLE IN THE RISE OF MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM DAVID I . KERTZER VI I HOI! OK THE kll>\ //'V, <)E EM, ARM) UORTIK I "Important.. .. Fascinating.... ...
Page 1. SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 28 * NUMBER 1 * SPRING * 1972 Making a Middle... more Page 1. SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 28 * NUMBER 1 * SPRING * 1972 Making a Middle Way: Problems of Monhegan Identity1 GEORGE L. HICKS AND DAVID I. KERTZER Investigations into ...
Focusing on the industrializing, sharecropping town of Casalecchio di Reno, in northern Italy, th... more Focusing on the industrializing, sharecropping town of Casalecchio di Reno, in northern Italy, this article examines the extent to which children lived with or near grandparents, and clarifies the coresidential situation of the older segment of the population. The three-generation household, closely identified with the traditional sharecropping economy, continued to flourish in a period of industrialization and urbanization. Some of the demographic changes occuring in this period in fact acted to reinforce the practice of three-generational coresidence. At both ends of the period (1871-1921), household extension closely folio wed patrilateral principles, so that while many children lived with their patental grandparents, it was rare for children to coreside with their maternal grandparents.
Reviewed in light of evidence from the commune of Casalecchio, the Hajnal thesis and its subseque... more Reviewed in light of evidence from the commune of Casalecchio, the Hajnal thesis and its subsequent reformulations are shown to be in need of modification. With respect to the “Mediterranean marriage pattern” (postulated by Peter Laslett), the Casalecchio evidence shows a strong patrilocal tradition of postmarital residence but not a concomitant early female age at marriage, a large spousal gap, or a small proportion of people who never marry. Moreover, marriage age remained relatively high during the period of proletarianization and the proletarian segment of the community married at much the same ages as the most traditional sharecropping population. The relationship between the impact of industrialization and marriage age in particular is therefore more complex than has been hypothesized.
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