Partnership and social link in Languedoc (17th-18th centuries)

Abstract

The family model that predominated in Bas-Languedoc in the eighteenth century presents many similarities with those that existed in the Pyrenees, the Massif Central or the Haute-Provence: it was based on the devolution of most of the assets to a single universal heir. In Bas-Languedoc heir was the eldest son and often, when there not were, the eldest daughter. According to the characteristics of the population of Old Regime, the implementation of this system had a multitude of effects on the processes of alliance, on the perpetuation of social hierarchy, the continuity of the networks of dependence and political power over the citizen community. The article aims to clarify the contours of the model and examine some of the changes suffered their application forms in the course of time and space.