Le choix des parrains et marraines dans les campagnes finlandaises entre 1810 et 1914

Abstract

On the basis of two case studies of artisans from the Finnish countryside, this paper presents five major factors that affected normal godparent relations. It argues that in some cases (especially among the highest echelons of the local society) godparenting strategies aiming at social advancement, which have received much attention in the research, may have had some significance, but for the majority of the population locality, occupation, social class and kinship were more important factors. In fact, most of these were highly intertwined in the pre-modern Finnish society of estates, and this is very visible in godparent networks. Thus this paper will serve researchers of godparenthood as an important reminder of how multi-faceted the phenomenon itself was. It also shows how persistent old social and godparenting structures were in the Finnish countryside. Despite a general European trend that favoured almost exclusively kinsmen in the selection of godparents from the 18th and 19th centuries on, no similar trend is evident in the sources used for this study, even in the first decades of the 20th century. This paper is based on a detailed prosopographic study of artisans in the rural parish of Hollola and the whole population of the ironworks community of Strömfors. The databases compiled for these communities contain data on the places of residence, kinship ties and occupational positions of their members. These data are then corroborated with information available about the socio-economic status of the individuals studied. On the basis of these data, godparent networks are reconstructed and compared in order to analyze the defining factors behind the different godparent patterns that are found. The importance of this study is emphasized by the exceptionally good quality of the source material available in Finland, which makes it possible to compile and compare extensive databases for virtually the whole population. Also noteworthy is available time scale, which extends to a later period than is usually the case in studies of godparenthood.