Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 8262
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Rheubottom , David B.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Genealogical Skewing and Political Support: Patrician Politics in Fifteenth-Century Ragusa (Dubrovnik)
  • Source: Continuity and Change 9, 3 (December 1994): Pages 369 - 390.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Age Groups Family Genealogy Marriage Nobility Politics Ragusa
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Eastern Europe
  • Century: 15
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table: Three tables and one figure. Table One shows the success of Grand Council members in office-holding in relation to the numbers of agnates and other kin on the Council. Table Two shows the range of ages at first betrothal for grooms. Figure One is a kinship chart showing the ages of male and female kin in three generations. Table Three charts the age differences among close male kin based on an average difference of fifteen years between older grooms and younger brides.
  • Abstract: Using material from the ruling elite of fifteenth-century Ragusa/Dubrovnik, I show that the patrician kin universe had a very distinctive 'shape' and that this affected the number of kin who might render support to one another, and the periods in which they might render it. This shaping is associated with age differences between spouses at marriage, a characteristic of the Mediterranean Marriage Pattern. While the Ragusan polity was dominated by large agnatically based groups, political success was inversely related to the number of agnates. This is shown to be associated with the shape of the universe of kin. [Reproduced with the permission of Cambridge University Press.]
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Manchester
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1994.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 02684160