Imigração e família, segunda metade do século XIX

Resumen

Having Southern Brazil as its focus, this paper seeks to study the region´s population based on some well-known generalizations and models widely accepted by historiographical thought, at least in its structural forms. Experimentation on their coherence takes place particularly in the third quarter of the 19^th Century, when immigrants took a forefront position: To what extent does the consistency of the models hold, if we introduce in its workings a complex element such as the cultural contacts resulting from immigration? This question allows us to formulate hypotheses about the interaction between the structure of families constituted by foreigners and their descendents and the more encompassing structure of social relations, in a dialectics of changes that ranges from the “ancient” to the “modern”. This issue touches on the reproductive behaviors of immigrant couples, which bring forward something to be explained and understood.