ABSTRACT
The universe of houses is the framework within which social relations are organised and within which the hierarchy is ordered according to the patrimony of houses, as if society were classified into houses which, in turn, structure themselves into social classes. Despite the combined effect of emigration and celibacy, the people find in the 1955 census list that the group of single sisters, all older than fifty, were still living alone in the house. It would seem, therefore, that the people find themselves on a purely Mediterranean island from the point of view of marriage practices, with a cultural ideal of marriage between members of the same group which translates into a high percentage of consanguine marriages. Marriages between consanguine kin form part of the global strategy of houses and should not be analysed as isolated events between families and individuals. Households did not accumulate marriages between excessively close kin during the development of a patrimonial line.
