Negotiating inheritance in the Western Pyrenees in the nineteenth century. Gender differentiated treatment and destinies
Résumé
Inheritance laws in the Western Pyrenees before the French Revolution made no case of gender because single inheritance was a birth rank issue. Only did the first-born, male or female child inherit patrimony. Thus a first-born daughter, even when she had younger brothers, inherited the family house and land. The others at best received a dowry to marry away. With the French Revolution, however, these ancient unequal practices became illegal because the Civil Code forced families to partition property equally between all the children, sons and daughters. Family reconstitutions over three generations in the nineteenth century however indicate that Basque families circumvented the new law. Yet, in the process, they created new gender inequalities. They continued to choose a single heir, but negotiated headship, heirship and inheritance with the children in order to preserve the family farm and land intact. In these negociations, the sons were better treated than the daughters. Younger daughters were particularly discriminated against because they were forced to celibacy or lower marriages. With time, however, women did manage to acquire more decision rights, better positions and greater powers by elaborating strategies to be equally treated and enjoy greater freedom (empowerment).