Culture matérielle et différenciation sociale les inventaires après décès du district judiciaire de Trois-Rivières, 1800-1820 et 1880-1900

Abstract

This paper analyses 203 estate inventories produced in the judicial district of Trois-Rivières in 1800-1820 and 1880-1900. Despite some biases, these sources allow an incursion into the daily life of populations. The rise of capitalism, the commercialization of agriculture and growing urbanization have reshaped the material environment of populations, their habits as consumers and the ways family assets were transmitted. Our data also shows that the Mauricie countryside was the site of a vigorous social differentiation in the XIX^th century, as several indicators show: house amenities, herds sizes, position in credit networks, etc. The study of rural societies, thus, must take into account, beside exclusions of inheritance and departures for manufacturing cities, the deep marginalization of families who were still a part of the rural world at the end of the XIX^th century.