The Lithuanian Family in its European Context, 1800-1914: Marriage, Divorce and Flexible Communities

by Dalia Leinartė

This book investigates marriage and divorce in the nineteenth-century European territories of the Russian Empire. It uncovers the way a peasant community employed unsanctioned marital behaviour, such as cohabitation and bigamy, among others, in order to respond to the external factors that had an impact on the family life, including transmission of inheritance and household structure. Lithuania was part of the Tsarist Empire until 1914. This case study reveals how under often restrictive laws and policies – serfdom up to 1861, and the pervasive role of the Church, in addition to deep-rooted customary practices – women and men manage to normalize their family life. The volume is based on a wide range of archival sources and uncovers familial behaviour both from an individual and community perspectives.

213 pages, Hardcover

Published June 26, 2017

Reviews

[Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting look at how Lithuanian families lived in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
1. I didn't realize just how restrictive Russian communes were in that time period. There was literally a guy who decided what areas you worked and how much of the communal grain you got this explains a lot of their mentality and the conflicts between them and Lithuanians later. (The Lithuanians tended to own their own land and live in nuclear families.)
2. You just don't appreciate how recently romantic love entered as a concept for marriage. Pretty much most marriages were arranged and were a mostly economic arrangement.
3. Quoting literature can show how people think, but I think she does that a bit too much as evidence for people's sentiment when such arrangements are fiction.