The “damned families”

Litigiousness as a result of fragmentation

In the heart of the Ligurian countryside, among the hills and narrow valleys, there was an aspect of peasant life as deep-rooted as it was feared: quarrelsomeness. This trait, inherited and justified by generations of farmers, was the bitter fruit of hereditary divisions, the use of springs and municipalities, as well as the continuous conflicts caused by fragmented agriculture and pulverized land ownership. Families were forced to live and work in narrow spaces, “huddled together”, with a system of real and personal servitude that was rarely reflected in written documents, but which was often passed down orally.

The “damned families” feared by everyone

In this tiring and inflexible existence, not everyone managed to maintain humanity and tolerance. Some, like the sharecropper Valino described by Cesare Pavese, embodied the figure of the enraged father, blinded by ignorance and the harshness of life. These were the “damned” families, as they were called in dialect. The father-masters, driven by anger and the obsession with possession, ended up destroying family harmony, arguing with their children, brothers and neighbors. These families were feared by everyone.

Fences and no man’s lands

They were people who fenced off every corner of land, denied passages and took over springs. Even the boys did not dare steal cherries or strawberry grapes, a customary right that was tolerated elsewhere. Their dogs, always chained, growled and bit, while their lands mysteriously expanded, with borders migrating into other people’s properties. A no man’s land was created around these families, where neighbors gave up asserting their rights to avoid spending the money they didn’t have on disputes.

The clash and the feuds

When two “damned” families clashed, memorable feuds were born. The teasing, the gossip, the degrading vileness and the ferocity could go as far as murder in past centuries. Over time, the feuds transformed into a legal dance, made up of citations, appeals and briefs, in an infinite merry-go-round that produced only stamped papers and lawyers’ fees. The litigants died, the memory of facts and misdeeds became blurred, but the cases continued to be pending before the judges, and the families continued to hate each other with the same intensity as always.

A cycle of conflict

And so, generation after generation, anger and resentment passed from father to son, fueling a cycle of conflicts that seemed to never end, while the Ligurian countryside retained its stories of struggles and divisions, echoes of a past that is still he reflected in the present.

Sources

Porcella M., “La fatica e la Merica”, Genova, Sagep, 1986

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