Gård, gräns, giftermål : Familjestrategiers betydelse för markens och landskapets utformning i Norra Åsarps socken, Västergötland ca 1640-1880

Sammanfattning: This dissertation deals with property rights and the implications of these for people, landscape and settlement in Norra Åsarp Parish in the province of Västergötland.The overarching aim of the thesis is to investigate systems of social rules and how these influence the structure of settlement and land use/ownership. The central question concerns how the peasant family reproduced and maintained social and physical boundaries and if there are any relationships between territoriality and social class.The analysis has led us to the unexpected result that there was a surprising degree of continuity concerning the individual field strips. This is remarkable since the social system otherwise showed a rather rapid rotation in farm occupancy. The intriguing question here is why it was like this in this area? Why were there no changes in the allotment system? To solve this question special attention is given to reproduction and farm practice at the individual level. The social structure was primarily characterised by families who farmed on a small scale. The farms belonging to a larger kinship group circulated between the relatives and were farmed by the most suitable couple available. The marital strategy made group identity well connected and the family identity become strong. The social system was to some extent readable in the landscape: the family tree was more or less written on the ground. This investigation may provide an explanation to why there were no changes in the allotment system.The basis of the taxation in Norra Åsarp may have been the allotment system itself and this may explain why nothing happens on the ground: land had to stay fixed and tied to specific homesteads, otherwise it would be hard to calculate the rights and duties of the farm.