The Network of Spiritual Kinship in Blato and Pupnat on the Island of Korčula in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Temeljem podataka matičnih knjiga za Blato i Pupnat, u članku se analizira institut kumstva u ruralnom dijelu otoka Korčule u drugoj polovici 19. stoljeća, koji je bio važan mehanizam za stvaranje društvenih mreža. Fokus ovog istraživanja je na analizi broja i spolne strukture krsnih kumova, intervalu rođenja i krštenja djeteta, podudarnosti imena i prezimena djece i njihovih kumova, te višekratnih kumstava. Kod vjenčanih kumova također su se razmatrali broj i spolna struktura kumova, podudarnost prezimena i višekratna kumstva.The phenomenon of spiritual kinship as an important segment in the development of social networks in the second half of the nineteenth century has been covered within the doctoral programme of the History of Population, University of Dubrovnik, based mainly on baptism and marriage registers of fifteen Croatian parishes. Among these, the parishes of Blato and Pupnat on the island of Korčula were chosen as representative samples of larger and smaller Dalmatian island communities. The data sample for Blato confined to the year 1870, while that for the smaller settlement of Pupnat was expanded in order to obtain a minimum of one hundred entries in the baptism and marriage records, that is, for godparents the time frame was extended up to 1875, and for marriage witnesses up to 1887. The analysis included godparent–godchild relationship with regard to gender, repeated godparenthood, name and surname sharing. The incidence of name sharing between marriage witnesses and bride and groom has also been analysed. The analysis of baptisms shows that children in Blato (1870) and Pupnat (1870-5) usually had two godparents, one of each sex. Only the children admitted to the foundling home had one godmother, most commonly the midwife who delivered them. In these two communities infants were mainly baptised immediately upon birth, as decreed by the Council of Trent. The majority of infants were baptised within seven days from birth: in Blato78.44%, in Pupnat 65.38%. In Blato, in almost 22% of the cases godparents and natural parents shared the surname or family nickname, which indicates that kin ties played a significant role in the selection of godparents. With marriage witnesses, this proportion is even greater: in Blato 31%, and in Pupnat 28% of witnesses shared the surname of either bride or groom