Emigrants, spinsters and priests: The dynamics of demography in Spanish peasant societies

Abstract

In Spanish peasant societies, aspects of social organisation such as patterns of marriage and inheritance and cultural traits like courtship and the concept of honour are examined as functional equivalents of demographic mechanisms such as fertility control and migration. Whether a demographic mechanism reinforces tradition or generates social change is found to be dependent on social structure.

Notes

Professor of Anthropology, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico. I should like to thank Angel Palerm, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Eric R. Wolf and Aram Yengoyan for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.