ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the changing perceptions of ‘mixed marriage’ on the island of Mallorca and in parts of the Spanish mainland over the past century. According to the Church, any marriage that did not conform to these criteria was a ‘mixed marriage’. There were degrees in the meanings of ‘mixed marriage’ in Biblical terms. The first degree meant a disparity of denomination between a baptized Catholic and a person baptized as a member of another Christian denomination. The second degree was between a baptized Catholic and a nonbaptized person. Marriage was of critical importance as far as it concerned the reproduction of the social system or the continuity of a particular social relationship over time. Individual interests were secondary to the reproduction and continuation of the patrimony. In Spanish and Catalan there are two different terms for outsiders: forasters and estrangers.
