Book Description

Going beyond classical theoretical approaches, Intermarriage throughout History provides a rich and unique collection of twenty-five essays which shed light on various models of family formation through non-homogamic marriage, from an historical and multi-disciplinary perspective. The volume originated from an international conference held at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania, in early summer 2013, with a large international participation drawn mostly from Europe, Russia, North and South America. The book also has its roots in the long academic tradition of family and demographic historical and ethnographic studies in Transylvania, where scholars have been particularly active in these fields during recent decades at the international level. Given the strong pressures towards endogamy, people in the past who had a ‘mixed’ marriage deserve researchers’ full attention. How did they overcome the obstacles put in their path by church, family, state and community? Can scholars disclose the reasons for their remarkable choice of partner? And what were the implications of their mixed marriage for their daily lives and those of their children? Mixed marriages offer a window on the tensions between societal norms and social control on the one hand, and individual variation and individual choice, or ‘agency’, on the other.