Mujer, hogar y economía familiar. Desigualdad y adaptación en la sierra de Alcaraz a mediados del siglo XVIII

Abstract

Woman, Household and Family Economy. Inequality and Adaptation in the Alcaraz Mountains in Mid-Eighteenth Century. Within the multiplicity of perspectives from which the topic of women can be studied, only women head of the family hare been adopted as case of analysis throughout this paper article. With the main enphasis upon mountainous area in Southern Spain, the Alcaraz Mountains, in mid-Eighteenth century, thanks to the documentary support provided by Catastro del Marqués de la Ensenada and its nominative relationships with other sources (mostly notarial), we hare attempted an approximative focus on those women's demographic, economic and social reality. After assessing the entity of this phenomenon and the characteristics of its aggregated and domestic economies, we hare verified and evaluated the inequality extant in their family units and the importance which both status and wealth, as practices of inheritance and life cycle (vital cycle), had in their configuration. Last brit not learst related to what has been already established, we hare analyzed the different strategic and adaptative measures adopted, either to avoid falling into indigence (poverty), or to go on perpetuating and reproducing position and patrimony.