The Greek-Orthodox Family Structure in the Late Nineteenth Century Sanjak of Kayseri

Abstract

This study expounds the Greek-Orthodox millet community’s family formation in the Sanjak of Kayseri in the 1870’s from the
aspects of especially extended family, polygamy, endogamy, average age of marriage, inheritance rights and ratio of children. By
revealing heterogeneous tendencies among the Greek-Orthodox communities of different parts of the Ottoman imperial lands, it is partly
going to be a comparative study. In the same way, while evaluating the Greek-Orthodox family structure, Kayseri’s other sedentary
communities’ family formations –Muslim and Armenian one- will be also taken into consideration. Certainly we cannot talk about one
type of family structure, which was assumed as a model and implemented by the Greek-Orthodox inhabitants residing in different parts
of the Ottoman domain. In different places, regional factors and local customs seem to play a crucial role in shaping the Greek-Orthodox
families. Like everywhere else in Kayseri too, in addition to these, various socio-economic reasons gave shape to family formation.
Comprehension of this subject therefore requires a short examination of such determinant elements. Briefly speaking, in reference to
Frederic Le Play’s categorization, the 1870’s Kayseri’s Greek-Orthodox families –as well as Muslim and Armenian ones- were formed as
“stem family”. In the meantime, from the perspective of inheritance rights, they can be defined as a “conjugal” family. Likewise,
endogamy was also a common feature both in the Muslim and non-Muslim families. Apart from these, we can say that in the vicinity of
Kayseri, females and males were prone to marry at early ages.