Brothers, sisters and the rearrangements of property on the Sicilian island of Stromboli in the nineteenth century

Abstract

This article focuses on property relationships among siblings, especially on sales and exchanges of land, houses and other items, on the small Sicilian island of Stromboli in the Aeolian archipelago during the nineteenth century. Stromboli’s economy incorporated farming and seafaring activities. The ‘modular structure’ of houses and wealth was characterised by partible inheritance, with equal inheritance shares or endowments for both sons and daughters, which was permitted under the Civil Code of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Siblings therefore had the possibility of exchanging, assembling and disposing of shares through sales. For this reason sibling relations had a strong impact on the market for land and houses in Stromboli, and kin structures and the market operated as complementary rather than separate or antagonistic spheres.