What has the ‘first sexual revolution’ to do with kinship transition? ‘Kin marriages’ and illicit sexuality in nineteenth-century Alpine Switzerland

Abstract

This paper questions the link between two major transformations observed in eighteenth century Europe: the reorganization of kinship structures and kinship solidarities on the one hand and the so-called ‘sexual revolution’ of the eighteenth century on the other, i.e. the spectacular rise of illegitimacy throughout Europe. Raising the question of this link has far-reaching theoretical implications, since the fundamental changes in kinship and sexuality have been treated so far as two independent phenomena in separate domains. The results presented in this paper refer to mountain villages of the Swiss Alps and base on genealogical data extracted from a large dynamic database called the Registre historique de la population du Valais. They suggest that the remarkable increase of close kin marriages was closely connected with changes in sexual habits and with the building of different sexual milieus. The ‘sexual revolution’ in the Entremont region was largely the issue of a few families and kin groups tending to build tightly knitted networks. In this perspective, the increase of kin marriages reflected the diversification of political and sexual milieus, characterized by different values, ideologies and attitudes. This profound diversification of life styles shows that social change did not affect local societies as a whole, but was supported by particular milieus made cohesive by privileged alliances within kin groups and by particular network patterns.