Kinship Transition and Political Polarization: The Spread of Radicalism in the Swiss Alps

Abstract

Detailed analysis shows that cultural change did not emerge as a general and unilateral revolutionary process in the Swiss Alps, as many studies have suggested, but as strains within certain political, religious, social, or sexual milieus. What occurred was a growing diversification of social groups rather than a global transformation. Marriages between relatives became, especially in the nineteenth century, special relationships within these milieus, reinforcing political or ideological solidarities. Nor was politics the decisive factor in the restructuring of kinship networks; social and economic perspectives were also important. Economic change, social mobility, class, and sexual behavior, for example, certainly contributed to the re-definition of kinship reproduction.