Histoire des Alpes - Storia delle Alpi - Geschichte der Alpen (1998)/28

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Histoire des Alpes - Storia delle Alpi - Geschichte der Alpen  (1998)  by [[Author:{{{author}}}|{{{author}}}]]
English summaries
source: Index:Labi 1998.djvu

[ 365 ]ENGLISH SUMMARIES





FRANZ MATHIS, "MOBILITY IN THE HISTORY OF THE ALPS. RESULTS AND TENDENCIES IN RESEARCH"


The situation in research into mobility in the history of the Alps may be summed up as follows: especially the seasonal, temporary and final migrations within and without the Alps have already been gone into, though not exhaustively Much less, however, is known about the concrete motives, the sequence and the effects of the migrations: in this matter there exist several extremely generalizing and, in part, therefore, too vague assertions, but along with them also already some more differentiated, micro-social and - in my view - future-indicating analyses. It is especially investigations of the latter type that we would need many more of, in order to perhaps once attain a comprehensive picture of migration and migrants in the Alps.


LAURENCE FONTAINE, "IMPLICIT PREMISES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ALPINE MIGRATION IN THE MODERN PERIOD"


This contribution sets out to provide understanding of the most important concepts employed in migration research and revelation of the underlying theories that have strongly influenced the analysis of migration movements by means of implicit assumptions. Pull- and push-factors, the space dynamics of Fernand Braudel, the chain-theory, etc. - all theses models have certain features in common, quite apart from their dichotomous terminology. Among the more closely observed common features there especially belongs the circumstance that they atomize the social structure and produce economic models that are divorced from the political context and structures of social [ 366 ]relations. The point is made that they bring along untested spadai concepts, neglect the role of the state and institutions in the selection of migration goals and do not pose the question of the complexity of the labour market. Finally it is demonstrated that these models consider the societies of origin in a perspective which, on the one hand, rates established residence a priori higher than migration, and on the other hand privileges individuals and nuclear families in comparison with broader kinship and clientelistic social groups.


PIER PAOLO VIAZZO, "MIGRATION AND MOBILITY IN THE ALPINE REGION: DEMOGRAPHIC SCENARIOS AND SOCIO-STRUCTURAL FACTORS"


This article draws a brief balance of the results provided by historical-demographic research into the alpine region in the past two decades and emphasizes its implications for migration and mobility studies. Research has shown that alpine population history was not characterized by high pressure regimes, but generally by finely calibrated systems in which a relatively slight mortality was counterbalanced by a restricted natality. Thus serious doubt is cast upon the canonical image according to which the alpine population was obliged to deliver its surpluses into the lowlands and form a human reservoir in the service of more prosperous and dynamic economies. At the same time attention is drawn to a subject especially raised by anthropology, namely the influence of certain socio-structural factors (inheritance systems, community structures) upon the extent, composition, range, direction and chronology of alpine migratory movements.


CASIMIRA GRANDI, "ALPINE EMIGRATION OF A FEMALE KIND: THE BOUNDS OF THE POSSIBLE (17-20TH CENTURY)"

The object of the present contribution is a conceptual synthesis of female emigration from the alpine region in historical times in connection with positions in the family sphere. The basic thesis concerns a social mobility of [ 367 ]great extent which, however, is hard to grasp in detail, because the preferred sources quoted up till now have almost totally ignored it. According to her active role the emigrant alpine female was “invisible", as a marginalized working-class woman or, the very contrary, as the perfectly integrated being. One interesting aspect that shows up from the investigation, but is only incidentally dealt with here, is the development of the concept of the biological differentiation of man and woman. This in respect of working capacity and of the acknowledgement of the emigrant female as a person who is capable of making an economic contribution.


WOLFGANG KAISER, "REFLECTIONS UPON FRONTIER - CONCEPT AND RESEARCH APRROACHES"

Within the terms of this conference the concept of “frontier", which embraces a broad and, according to whatever language is used, a varied field of application, is reduced to the meaning in the sphere of seigneural control. Any orientation towards the building of the early modern state, whose “skin" signifies its frontier, according to contemporary thinking, carries with it the danger of restricting the sphere of observation to the historical actors in the centres or to certain forms of seigneural action. In addition the borderline is conceived, as far as mobility is concerned, only superficially as source-productive. The question as to how the borderline is implanted into social life and the practices of human beings in borderline areas opens the view to forms of sly dealings with frontiers which are both created and tolerated.


CHRISTIAN ABRY AND ALICE JOISTEN, "FROM MIGRATION TO WANDERING ABOUT, OR THE ITALIANS BETWEEN THE 'DEATH OF THE GREAT PAN' AND THE 'PROCESSION OF THE DEAD'"

What connection exists between passing Italian harvest helpers, the Wild Men and Women, Waldensian heretics, the Wandering Jew, King Herod and the March of the Dead? These homologies between entirely different crea[ 368 ]tures derive from a collection of tales gathered in the 1950’s and 1960’s in the Hautes-Alpes. They all belong to the widespread, well structured narrative milieu of fairies and wild creatures. In this case the “Death Message of the Great Pan" may well provide a key to understanding. The initial motive is important, too: the period of rambling processions of the dead or, more general, the appearance of fairies, taken for the dead. Both are periodical phenomena, and the creatures concerned, which respond to human appeals for help, pay for it with a moment of eternity: seven to one hundred years. By means of these tales one can discover how migration can be interpreted as wandering about - a restlessness which may be understood, anthropologically and historically, together with the invention of purgatory, as the return of the dead.


PIERRE BINTZ AND THIERRY TILLET, "MIGRATION AND SEASONAL USUFRUCT OF THE ALPS IN PRE-HISTORIC TIMES"

Nomadic life belongs to the basic aspects of pre-historic hunter- and gatherer societies. Of interest is the question of in what manner, and with what motives, the groups of human beings organized their changes of locality in accordance with their needs and the bio-climatic pre-conditions, when confronted with the constraints of the Alps. In the last period of the Ice Age, with its great exension of glaciers, the mountain ranges formed an absolute obstacle for mankind. It is also of interest, therefore, to compare the modalities of intrusion and seasonal exploitation in the phases before and after this glacial period: In the Middle Palaeolithic Age findings illustrate seasonal strategies of advances into the higher pre-alpine regions; at the end of the Palaeolithic Age (from 14,000 BP onward) and in the Mesolithic Age (9,000-6,000 BP), the Alps, with returning favourable climatic conditions, once more become an attractive territory, within which can be documented various forms of migration. [ 369 ]STEFAN WINGHART, "PRODUCTION, PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION. REFLECTIONS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF METAL RAW MATERIALS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS IN THE SOUTH BAVARIAN FORELAND DURING THE BRONZE AGE"

The article deals with the possibilities of making deductions from archaelogical findings about political processes in the South Bavarian alpine region during the Bronze Age. Whereby the South Bavarian situation is compared with that of regions in Eastern Central Europe and South Eastern Europe, the situation of which is more easily assessable because of its proximity to the early Eastern Mediterranean high cultures. There becomes evident a surprising consonance both in the chronological development of the occupation, as well as in the manner and purpose of the fortifications. Southern Bavaria possesses, contrary to the Danube territories, a further group of sources, namely grave-findings. The essay sets out to trace the connecting links between fortified heights in the Pre-Alps, castle-like sites on the alpine rims, fragmentary metal finds and rich graves with evidence of metal production and its processing. This is achieved above all by means of a metal-analyzing research project dealing with the economic and political dimension of metal distribution during the Bronze Age in the eastern alpine foreland.


BERNARD RÉMY, "IMMIGRATION INTO THE WESTERN ALPS AT THE END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND IN EARLY IMPERIAL TIMES"

After the Roman conquest very few men and women came into the Western Alps in order to settle there within the framework of an institutionalized immigration or of their own accord. Two Roman colonies were founded: Nyon, by Caesar towards 46-44 B. C., and Aosta, by Augustus, 25 A. D. According to our present state of knowledge individual immigration seems to have been of very little importance, only four immigrants are known: in the Tarentaise region Quintus Caetronius Titullus, a former Italian soldier from the confederation of the Voconti, and a man (Tiberius Claudius Phoebus) from Tiberiopolis in Phrygia with his wife (Pilia? Fida) from Vaison near the Voconti; in Aosta Caius Avilius Caimus, an owner or lessee of mines. [ 370 ]PETER STIH, "ALPINE COLONIZATION AND MIGRATIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES WITH SLOVENIA AS AN EXAMPLE"

At the beginning of the 7th century a great part of the Eastern Alps became Slavonic settlements, which left to the territory settled by the Slovenes that linguistic identity which it still maintains in our days. Slavonic colonization took in regions already previously settled, but the new settlers took over only one economic sector - the Alpwirtschaft - from the older ones. The agrarian colonization embraced the higher alpine regions not before the 13th and 14th centuries. Linked to middle and late medieval colonization were migrations of German-speaking peasants. This led at first to the creation of a language mixed territory, from which there emerged at the end of the Middle Ages two homogeneous ethnical blocks: the Slovenian in the South and the Germanic in the North. Between them was set up a language frontier which remained stable up till the 19th century.


GERTRUD THOMA, "SPACIAL MOBILITY AS A CONSEQUENCE OF MEDIEVAL SCATTERED OWNERSHIP: THE RELATIONS OF THE BISHOPRIC OF FREISING WITH ITS ALPINE PROPERTIES"

The preservation, administration, extension and exploitation of the typical medieval scattered property led to mobility of many kinds, mobility of persons and goods, over great distances or in close proximity, temporary, regular or long-term changes of sites. As can be seen from the example of the Freising manorial land ownership for the 12th till the 14th century, the most varied groups of persons were involved in this mobility: the bishops themselves, the prebendaries of the varied foundations both in Bavaria and in the Eastern Alps, the ministerials, administrators, messengers and, last but not least, the peasant settlers, too. Neither the long distances nor the alpine character of the countryside were thereby apparently regarded as a hindrance. The decisive factor in the landowners’ putting up with such expenditure for journeys and transports in alpine regions was, apart from their political presence, the economic profit. In the alpine regions there was still at that time new, fertile land to be had and exploited. Furthermore, the possibility of [ 371 ]viniculture on the soutern alpine slopes and the Danubian alpine fringe made such possessions especially attractive to a religious institution.


ROLAND PAULER, "IMPERIAL BORDER POLICY WITHIN THE POWER STRUCTURE CONCERNING THE ALPINE PASSES (14TH CENTURY)"

For the Roman Kings of the 14th century it was by no means a matter of course to be able to traverse the Alps without hindrance in order to attain the Imperial Crown. Either they had to dominate themselves one of the passes and their approaches that could be used by an army or have good relations with the relevant territorial rulers. King Albrecht was himself in command of alpine approaches, for the Luxembourg ruler Henry VII it was enough to be brother-in-law to Count Amadeus V of Savoy to use the Italian stretch. In 1314 there occurred the dual election of Frederick of Habsburg and Ludwig of Bavaria. Whereas the Habsburger was in possession of several possible passages to Italy by reason of family connections and his own possessions, the Wittelsbacher had to open the pass by political means. The Luxembourger Karl IV ensured for himself the western passes by incorporating Savoy, which hitherto had belonged to Burgundy, into the Geman Empire and nominating its ruler as the Vicar General of Italy. The eastern alpine passes were at his disposal by means of his relation by marriage to the Habsburgs and by causing the popes to elevate his confidants to the status of Patriarchs of Aquileia.


PIERRETTE PARAVY, "MIGRATION AND RELIGION IN THE MEDIEVAL ALPS. THE CASE OF THE WALDENSES IN THE VALLEYS OF UPPER DAUPHINÉ, FROM REFUGE TO THE DIASPORA"

The object of this contribution is a survey of research and a reflexion upon the role of migration phenomena in the history of the Waldensian settlement in Upper Dauphiné: according to traditional opinion a migration originating from Lyons in the search for a “refuge"; development of a particular milieu in this “border region"; the existence of “Waldensian valleys". [ 372 ]documented only by the repression which begins in the 1330’s and continues without cease up to the crusade of 1488 and thus destabilizes the Waldensian settlements permanently during a period marked by crises in any case. Can this phenomenon be expressed in numbers? Which are the migration types? Can one form a picture of the periods of rupture and the resulting effects, both within and without the valleys? What significance have they for the shaping of a Waldensian identity? Are they imposed, passively tolerated, or are they evidence of creative forces within a milieu to the solidarity of which they contribute?


JEAN-CLAUDE DUCLOS, "TRANSHUMANCE, A MODEL OF COMPLEMENT BETWEEN MOUNTAINS AND PLAINS"

The great sheep transhumance is of very ancient origin, but it undergoes towards the end of the 14th century in all the lands of the western mediterranean area, where it is common, a hitherto unknown expansion. Two factors are prominent therein: The diffusion of fulling-mill technology allows wool processing on a great scale and results in a strong growth of sheep numbers. At the same time the rapid expansion of cultivated land is incompatible with the continuous presence of flocks. At this juncture the practice becomes generalized of moving the flocks into the mountains for four summer months - that is the great transhumance. The people who organize this, arrange for the transport of flocks, provide summer pasture for them and watch over their fattening originate all from the mountains. As has often been said, transhumance is first and foremost a child of the mountains. It belongs to the most elementary and ancient form of exploitation of the highlands, which is bound up with the seasonal wanderings of mankind and animals in order to profit thus from the variations of altitude and climate to the greatest extent possible. [ 373 ]GABRIEL AUDISIO, "THE SURVEILLANCE OF ALPINE PASSES IN THE YEAR 1685"

France, the largest and most highly populated European state in the 17th century, had to face two facts under Louis XIV: growth in population and the anti-protestant policy of the King. In 1685 his policy culminated in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by means of which both the protestant religion within the realm and exile were forbidden. The two alpine border provinces, Provence and Dauphiné, had each a protestant minority. From the correspondence between the provincial administrators and the ministers we can gauge the unease that the guarding of the alpine passes caused them. Despite all measures to prevent a Huguenot exodus via the Savoyan mountains into the Swiss Confederation and German territories, one fifth of all protestants from the Provence and one third of those from the Dauphiné succeeded in fleeing. This case study illustrates the vanity of a policy with insufficient means and the hazard of frontier closure in mountainous country.


ALAIN BELMONT, "THE ARTISAN AND THE FRONTIER: THE EXAMPLE OF THE HEMP-COMBERS IN THE BRIANÇONNAIS IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES"

Among the numerous seasonal migrations that took place in the French Alps, that of the hemp-combers from the Briançonnais (Dauphiné, department Haute-Alpes) is undoubtedly one of the most important and, paradoxically, least known. This migration concerned a relatively narrow area, restricted to the upper valley of the River Durance. In the villages concerned, however, the majority of the men, in fact almost the whole male population, took part in it. The destinations were low-lying regions of the Dauphiné, districts round Lyons and in Burgundy, and especially neighbouring Piedmont. In the 18th century the piedmontese destinations then declined strongly in favour of nearby, but also over 400 kms distant French destinations. What were the causes of the change? The wars in Italy? The frontier fixing in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713? A new socio-cultural context in France? These hypotheses are discussed in the article. What is certain is that the [ 374 ]changing of goals accompanied another radical change, or caused it, for the hemp-combers from the Briançonnais now became schoolmasters, until their migration almost totally came to an end in the early 19th century


FURIO BIANCO, "THE FRONTIER AS A RESOURCE. TOBACCO SMUGGLING IN THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC DURING EARLY MODERN TIMES"

This contribution deals at first with the specific importance that the rural population during the Ancien regime attached to frontiers, whether they concerned communes, seigneural domains or districts under state sovereignty It then goes into the phenomenon of smuggling, especially of secret trade in tobacco. On the basis of court documents, judgements and legal-economic sources concerning private leases, as also of previous studies concerning these subjects, an image of tobacco smuggling over the whole Venetian alpine territory can be presented. Its connotations, common aspects and differences can thereby be recognized as well as the modalities of the formation of large armed gangs and their relations to the local population, as to the government instances entrusted with repression thereof, all of which in comparison with other European regions.


GIORGIO FERIGO, '"THE GIPSY CHARACTER'. THE MIGRATION SYSTEM IN THE CARNATIC ALPS DURING EARLY MODERN TIMES"

In December 1678 the plague broke out in Vienna. The Venetian Republic, immediately alerted, ordered a number of precautions, one of which being a census of emigrants from the Carnatic region. The census - the most important early modern source of emigration in the territory under examination - named 1690 persons, making 8 percent of the total population. Among the men over 15 years of age the portion, 25 percent, was considerably higher. This periodic emigration from the Carnatic Alps took two main forms each with its own, in part very distant destinations: in the northern villages the predominant form of emigration was commercial, in the southern ones handicraft. [ 375 ]On the basis of quite varied documents the paper examines the continuity and change in destinations and in periodicity the credit relations bound up with emigration, the simultaneous immigration and the social effects of the system.


ANNE RADEFF, "MOUNTAINS, PLAINS AND MIGRATION"

Appreciable studies have revealed the importance of migration from the mountains to the plains. Can one maintain that mountainous regions are just made for emigration? I rather think not: First of all mountains are not a solid block to be contrasted with the lowlands; the differences between lofty regions can be just as great, and even greater than those between mountains and lowland. Secondly, people do not abandon all mountain regions to the same extent; in some villages emigrants are very frequent, in others, on the other hand, very rare. Thirdly, we can find in Europe vast emigrant areas on the flat. This article estimates the intensity of West-European migration in the 18th and early 19th centuries from three observation posts: mountain zones (Alps and the Jura), transit zones (the frontier town of Bale) and arrival zones (the region of Lake Leman). The data gathered from French and Swiss sources show that mountain dwellers do not always provide the greater mass on the roads and that many of them are firmly established.


ANDREAS BURGI, "FEAR OF HEIGHTS, CRAZE OF HEIGHTS. ON THE FIGURE OF THE CHAMOIS HUNTER IN THE 18TH CENTURY"

Numerous scientific and literary 18th century texts devoted to alpine research deal at great length with chamois and chamois hunters. This attention is out of all proportion to the significance of the chamois for subsistence and chamois hunting for the alpine economy. The examination of these texts reveals that the chamois hunter is an anthropological construct of the cultural elite of the lowlands, and thus of a fictitious stature that fulfills various functions in connection with the conquering of the alpine ranges. The chamois [ 376 ]hunter is the prototype of alpine mankind and possesses an exemplary function greater than that of all other alpine dwellers. He reveals mentally to the cultural elite the alpine zone by showing that one can survive there. At the same time he preserves the mystery of this region by passing on traditional fears of the upper alpine regions in addition to the new ones experienced by the cultural elite with regard to the Alps.


ANNE-MARIE GRANET-ABISSET, "TRADE AND CULTURE, OR ORGANIZED MOBILITY. THE EXAMPLE OF QUEYRAS IN THE 19TH CENTURY"

In Queyras, an apparently, by nature and its border, isolated mountain valley in the Southern Alps, there had been, for a very long time, a busy coming and going. As in neighbouring Briançonnais, migration enjoys here a tradition throughout centuries. Scholars and historians, of course, have ascribed such departure to despair, or at least to necessity, the which was registered by individual and collective memory. If, however, one pursues the migratory movements by means of family histories that have produced and activated them, there is revealed an extremely effective organization of mobility. By means of the esteem enjoyed by trade and schooling - astonishing for a community made out to be mountain peasant-like and on the poor side - families and kinship networks turn apprenticeship into a principal item of upbringing, which enables one to master the prevalent pluriactivity. By means of the investigation of these essential migration factors the realities of alpine societies can thus be deciphered anew in its full complexity.


VINCENC RAJSP, "ON POPULATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE JULIAN ALPS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE 'ISONZO ROUTE'"

This contribution deals with the demographic development since the second half of the 19th century in the western alpine region of Slovenia, that is the Trenta and Koritnica valleys as far as the Slovene-Italian state border. For this period decreasing population figures are typical. The main reasons for [ 377 ]this are to be sought in the unstable economic situations (decline of the Trenta iron-works, the dependence on the Raibl mine, lack of development chances of agriculture and cattle rearing). Special consideration is then given to the traffic situation and history of this territory, more specifically on the basis of two projects for the improvement of the Isonzo road in the 16th and 18th centuries.


HELMUT ALEXANDER, "ON THE REGIONAL ORIGIN OF THE PRIESTHOOD RECRUITS OF THE DIOCESE OF BRIXEN IN THE 19TH CENTURY"

In 1803 the imperial deputation’s main decision (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss) put an end to the mixed clerical-secular character of the church in the Tyrol, especially to that of the bishoprics of Brixen and Trent. Secularization and industrialization broke up structures, in the course of which the clergy attempted to maintain their traditional position in society and state and even to extend it. Thereby the pastoral clergy, the “simple” country priests, played an important role by exercising a decisive infuence on the political awareness of the population, thus shaping protractedly their attitude to the state and their authorities, to progress and modernity. Where, however, did those clergymen come from? In what regions did they originate? And were there differences in the recruitment of Tyrolean and Vorarlberg deaneries? This is what the present contribution attempts to answer.


THOMAS HELLMUTH, '"PUBLIC OPINION IS WITH US AN AGE-OLD HAG ...'IDEOLOGICAL TRANSFER IN THE 19TH CENTURY AS EXAMPLED BY THE ALPINE REGION"

The present article examines the transmission and reception of modern ideologies within local resp. regional areas. Thereby there are revealed two interesting aspects of mobility: 1. Modern and traditional communication structures, in the present case the printing media and journeyman wanderings, supplemented each other. Journeymen functioned as bearers of politi[ 378 ]cal ideologies, their associations organized, so to speak, political mobility. Along with its traditional significance for labour-market regulation and professional advance, journeyman wandering now took on political relevance, too. 2.The modern ideologies now penetrating “from without" into the local scene were adapted to whatever were the local circumstances. Liberalism and socialism did not simply take over the regional or local scene, but were rather, under certain conditions, tolerated and accepted. The alpine region was not homogenized as a result of the social effects of industrialization and market integration, but rather varied by transformation’s cultural multiplicity.


HERMANN J. W. KUPRIAN, "REFUGEES AND EXPELLED PERSONS IN THE ALPS DURING WORLD WAR I"

Vast spaces of alpine territory were, during World War I, affected directly or indirectly by a mass emigration, hitherto unknown in history, which until our times has hardly been investigated as to its political, economic, social and mental effects. Nevertheless it can be proved that this mobility, let loose by warfare, not only worsened the latent problems in the multi-national Habsburg monarchy, but also affected the relations among the countries forming the new republic of Austria and effected in foreign policy the bilateral relations of post-war Europe. Even though, in the meantime, the alpine borders have become less problematic, the psychological effects of this historical development still remain evident to this day.


SABINE SCHWEITZER, "... AND THEN WE MOVED OUT ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE OPTION AND RESETTLEMENT OF SOUTH TYROLEANS"

The purpose of the present essay is a “thick description’’ of the autobiographical perspectives of South Tyroleans involved in the so-called option of 1939 and the subsequent re-settlement by means of life-story interviews. The aim is to reconstruct the “life spheres’’ (Lebenswelten) of the persons [ 379 ]concerned, their everyday life, experiences and points of view, their interpretations and possibilities of taking action, plus their present-day management of the history they themselves experienced. The case history of Antonia O. leads to the interpretation that the migration at the time was not necessarily understood as a break, but much rather a consequent decision in favour of marriage and family. It was only after same time, and only in connection with later experiences and offers of “collective memory" that the re-settlement was interpreted as a rupture. Thus biographical access makes possible a correction of dominant assumptions in migration research, since the accepted break was not, in many cases considered by the persons concerned as such, and continuities, or further discontinuities, left more impressive stamps.