Demographic Changes and Matrimonial Strategies of a Val Cenischia Community between 19th and 20th Centuries

The purpose of this study is to analyze the events of marriage, birth and death occurring in the Venaus's community between 1866 and 1935.The analysis of these biodemographic phenomena allowed me to investigate not only the evolution of the community structure, but also the same processes which have requested the change, and to recognize, at least in part, the network of forces and constraints through which the stories of the individuals and the families of Venaus could be realized. The analysis of the birth places of husbands and wives suggests some privileged paths and the presence of stable networks of relationships with adjacent locations: Mompantero, Giaglione, Susa and Moncenisio. Venaus, traditionally a moderately open community, over the nineteenth century also opened to migrants from the rest of Italy and overseas: the names of young people from the Americas have unveiled a real condition of return migration, the expression of our forefa-thers' desire to return to land to search for their partners. Although the great westward movement of European migration entails the loss of about 1/3 of the population from 1880 to 1910, the birth rate remains stably high. In addition, the significant increase in the percentage of deaths in the older classes than in the younger ones, and the strong decline in infant mortality, indicate a marked improvement in the living condition, in line with the secular trend. These and further analyses showed how very different factors interweave and interact in complex ways in order to construct the evolutionary history of a community.