Zwischen Anforderungsprofilen und Argumentationsrepertoires

Partner/-innen/-wahl und Arbeitsorganisation im bergbäuerlichen Milieu in Tirol und Vorarlberg im 19. Jahrhundert

Abstract

Mountain agriculture is connected with specific demands on work. The ability of men and women to cope with these specific demands was considered something impossible to be learnt and something a person needed to be accustomed to from childhood. This became an issue in the criteria used in the selection of a marriage partner. The analysis of applications for marriage dispensations forms the basis of this paper, focusing on the justification of the choice of blood relatives and members of the in-law family as marriage partners. Further- more, the question of whether kinship could have had a special importance in the context of mountain farming enterprises in remote locations becomes relevant. In particular, the applicants for dispensations strategically attempted to plead that the official canonical grounds of the ‘smallness of a place’ be applied. To stress the unfortunate and difficult nature of the situation, further factors were mentioned. They were put onto paper by members of the clergy, sorted and filtered by them. Even though it is impossible to decide who was respon- sible for the exact wording of certain passages within the minutes, it becomes clear that the arguments and motifs formulated there also circulated outside the office. Successful lines of argumentation were reused in subsequent cases.