CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE^ — PIERSON 



127 



THE FAMILY 



In this community, individuals are bound to- 

 gether in families with tenacious bonds of be- 

 longing, obligation, and affection which, by way 

 of interfamily marriage, extend throughout vir- 

 tually the entire community. 



In most cases, family units are composed merely 

 of father, mother, and children. In many cases, 

 however, an aunt, a grandmother, or a grand- 

 father also lives in the household. The size of a 

 family occupying the same house thus ranges from 

 2 persons (a man and his wife, without children) 

 to 14 persons (a father, mother, their 11 children, 

 and the father's mother). A few families are 

 "joint families," three generations sometimes liv- 

 ing together on the same farm, in two or three 

 houses built close together. In each of the cases 

 observed, with one exception, residence was patri- 

 local, the son bringing his wife to live on the 

 farm of the father. In the exceptional case, not 

 only had a married son brought his wife to live 

 on the farm of the father but also a married 

 daughter resided with her husband on the same 

 farm. The family is ordinarily consanguineous. 

 Occasionally, however, a godchild or other foster 

 child may be reared in the family as an integral 

 part of it. Organization is of the "patriarchal" 

 type, the dominant status and authority of the hus- 

 band and father being unquestioned. Descent or- 

 dinarily is reckoned through the father's line, 

 although a child may elect to take also the mother's 

 family name. At marriage, the wife takes the 

 family name of her husband ; in most cases, how- 

 ever, she precedes it with her own family name. 

 Kinship is reckoned in keeping with European 

 patterns and the terminology employed also is 

 European. 



The number of relatives personally known to 

 each individual ordinarily is quite large. When 

 asked to give the names of the members of her ex- 

 tended family who were known to her, a young 

 farm woman, 24 years old, recalled without effort 

 a total of 166 persons. This was done spontane- 

 ously, without previous consideration to the matter 

 or subsequent consultation, during approximately 

 2 hours, while the young woman continued prepa- 

 rations for a meal and looked after the needs of her 

 small children. The relatives in question were 

 distributed as shown in the following tabulation : 



Number and relationship of members of extended family 

 known to informant, Cruz das Almas, lOJ/S 



Relation to ego : Numler 



Father 1 



Mother 1 



Brothers and sisters 8 



Father's father and mother 2 



Mother's father and mother 2 



Father's brothers and sisters 10 



Mother's brothers and sisters 9 



Father's father's brothers and sisters 3 



Father's mother's brothers and sisters 7 



Mother's father's brothers and sisters 4 



Mother's mother's brothers and sisters 2 



Mother's mother's father and mother 2 



Children 3 



Children of brothers and sisters 2 



Children of father's brothers and sisters 28 



Children of mother's brothers and sisters 32 



Grandchildren of father's brothers and sisters— 10 



Grandchildren of mother's brothers and sisters— 2 



Husband 1 



Spouses of brothers and sisters 2 



Spouses of cousins 3 



Spouses of uncles and aunts lf> 



Spouses of grandfathers' and grandmothers' 



brothers and sisters 15 



Mother's father's second wife 1 



Total 166 



Of the 166 persons, the informant recalled both 

 the given and family name, often including the 

 middle name, for 139, of whom 118 were related 

 to her by blood and 21 were persons who had mar- 

 ried into the family. In 11 cases, the informant 

 could not at the moment recall the name of a blood 

 relative. Included were one of the nine children 

 of one of her mother's brothers, one of the two 

 grandchildren of another of her mother's brothers, 

 one of the five children of one of her mother's sis- 

 ters, and one of the five children of one of her 

 father's sisters. In each of these cases, however, 

 she was able to recall the names of all the other 

 siblings. In 10 other cases, the informant remem- 

 bered the given name but not the family name of 

 a person who had married into the family ; 4 of the 

 10 are deceased. In six other cases, she remem- 

 bered the family name but not the given name of a 

 person who had married into the family; all of 

 the six are deceased. 



Of the persons listed 64, or 38.6 percent, bore 

 the same family name as the informant. Also 

 represented were 16 other family names, among 

 which were the 6 most common to the community. 



843805—51- 



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