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Portugal The Extended Family and Kinship Relations
The extended family and kinship relations, including
ritual
kinship, were also important. The role of the godparent,
for
example, had an importance in Portugal that it lacked in
the
United States. Being a godparent implied certain lifetime
obligations, such as helping a godchild in trouble,
arranging
admission to a school, finding employment, or furthering a
professional or political career. The godchild, in turn,
owed
loyalty and service to the godparent. The system was one
of
patronage based on mutual obligation.
Political kinship networks could consist of several
hundred
persons. Such extended networks were especially prevalent
among
the elite. Members of the elite were bound not only by
marriage
and family, but by business partnerships, friendships,
political
ties, university or military academy bonds, and common
loyalties.
It was long the practice to have such family connections
in the
government so as to be able to extract favors and
contracts. The
elite and middle-class families also tried to have a
"cousin,"
real or ritual, in all political parties so that their
interests
were protected no matter which party was in power.
Sometimes the
parties or interest groups were just "fronts" for these
family
groupings. These extended families also tried to have
members in
different sectors of the economy, both to enhance profits
and to
enable each sector to support and reinforce the others.
Although
these extended family networks were difficult for
outsiders to
penetrate, some observers regarded them as the country's
most
important political and economic institutions, of greater
real
consequence than political parties, interest
organizations, or
government institutions.
The poor and working class lacked the extended family
networks of the middle class and the wealthy. Kin
relations
outside the nuclear family were weak. Little premium was
placed
on building economic alliances through an extended family
network
because there was little wealth to be shared or gained.
Similarly, there was no reason to build strong political
connections because the poor lacked political power.
However, a
poor person might succeed in persuading a local landowner
or
village notable to serve as godfather to his children. In
that
way, the individual became part of a larger network,
expecting
favors in return for loyalty and service. If that network
became
wealthy or achieved political prominence, then the poor
person
attached to it might also expect to benefit--perhaps by
obtaining
a low-level government job. But if it fell, the individual
also
fell. The entire Portuguese local and national system was
based
on these extended family and patronage ties, which were
often as
important as formal institutions.
Data as of January 1993
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