Godparenthood and social networks in an Italian rural community: Nonantola in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

The article analyzes the use of godparenthood in the rural town of Nonantola in Northern Italy by making use of formal network analysis methods. Nonantola is a particularly interesting case for study given that it is characterized by the presence of vast common lands established since the Middle Ages, which at the end of 16th century became ‘semi-common’. In fact, at that time the community decided that the right to use of such lands was to be limited to ‘originary’ families, thus excluding immigrants. The right became transmissible from parents to sons and daughters, but the latter lost it if they married outside the group composed by the descendants of the original families. Immediately after the introduction of this new rule, marriage strategies became inward-orientated. The article analyzes the implications of this for the shape of social networks. It considers both selection of marriage partners and godparents, as selection of the latter could compensate a forced reorganization of kinship ties due to the closure of the marriage strategies.