Two strong families in Southern Europe? Revisiting the geography of kinship regimes stemming from the reciprocity mechanisms between generations? [Deux types de familles fortes en europe méridionale? le réexamen de la géographie des systèmes de parenté issus des mecanismes de réciprocité entre générations]

David Reher's hypothesis of a specific pattern of "strong family" characterizing the south of Europe is currently widely shared. Is a further specification possible, one that applies uniquely to the Mediterranean family? The supporting evidence from a large corpus of in-depth interviews of young people aged 30-34 and living in the north and south of Italy seems to confirm the existence of a dual identity for the strong family, located in two distinct belts within southern Europe divided along a north-south gradient. Pointers to the historical and anthropological roots of this cleavage between the two southern family patterns are sought in two major texts, Ibn Kaldun's Mouqaddima and Mauss' "Essay on the Gift." © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.