Ultimogeniture
Ultimogeniture, also known as postremogeniture or junior right, is the tradition of inheritance by the last-born of a privileged position in a parent's wealth or office. The tradition has been far rarer historically than primogeniture (sole inheritance by the first-born) or partible inheritance (division of the estate among the children).
Advantages and disadvantages
Ultimogeniture might be considered appropriate in circumstances in which the youngest child had been assigned the role of "keeping the hearth", taking care of the parents and continuing at home, and elder children had had time and opportunity to succeed in the world and provide for themselves. In a variation on the system, elder children might have received a share of land and moveable property at a younger age such as by marrying and founding their own family. Ultimogeniture might also be considered appropriate for the estates of elderly rulers and property owners, whose children were likely to be mature adults.
Those who stand to gain from ignoring the stipulation under ultimogeniture are more likely to have the facility to do so, when compared to other succession laws. For example, under primogeniture tradition, younger siblings stand to gain if they can bypass said tradition; elder siblings, however, have more time and opportunities to gain power, wealth, experience and influence to better solidify their inheritance claim. In ultimogeniture elder siblings, especially the first born of the relevant gender, are heavily incentivized and more empowered to sidestep the tradition, especially if primogeniture inheritance is a culturally familiar concept. This can be achieved through coercion, assassination, fratricide or even patricide to move themselves up the succession order. This may be an explanation as to why primogeniture traditions tend to be more prevalent than ultimogeniture.
Examples of use
- Many
- In intestate and frequently though not universally also included the principle of inheritance by the deceased's youngest brother if there was no son.[6] Less often, the practice was extended to the youngest daughter, sister, aunt, etc.[6] Its origin is much disputed, but the Normans, who generally practiced primogeniture, considered it to be a Saxon legacy.[5] A 1327 court case found it to be the practice of the English burgh at Nottingham but not of the town's "French" district.[7] The tradition was also found across many rural areas of England in which lands were held in tenure by socage.[6] It also occurred in copyhold manors in Hampshire, Surrey, Middlesex,[6] Suffolk, and Sussex[5]in which manorial custom dictated the form of inheritance to be ultimogeniture.
- In the German Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, land holdings were traditionally passed to the youngest son, who might then employ his older brothers as farm workers.[8]
- In neolocal.
- Among the Malabar Syrian Christian community of Kerala in southern India, the practice is a variant of ultimogeniture in which the youngest son gets the ancestral house (tharavad) and adjoining property and is expected to take care of his elderly parents. His elder brothers also get a share of the property but live separately. The daughters are granted a bounteous dowry but traditionally do not receive inheritance of property.[9][10] If there are no sons, the husband of the youngest daughter is formally embraced into the family as adopted son (dathu puthran) to fulfill the role of the youngest son.[10][9]
- In some southwestern areas of Meiji era showed that the most common family form throughout the country during the Edo period was characterized by stem structure, patrilineal descent, patrivirilocal[clarification needed] residence and patrilineal primogeniture, but in some southwestern areas, that combination of partible inheritance and ultimogeniture was sometimes used.[11]
- Among Mongolian Empire was divided among all four of his sons, but the Mongolian homeland was passed to his youngest, Tolui.[13]
- The
- The Dai people of southern China pass their bamboo houses down to the youngest son of the family, requiring older children to move away and live independently from their parents.[15]
- The island of Bornholm explicitly recognized ultimogeniture in a statute dating from 1773. The practice was abolished in 1887.[16]
See also
- Inheritance
- Secundogeniture
- Succession order
- Youngest son
Notes
References
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ Deut 21.
- ^ a b Frazer, Sir James George (1921). Capps; Page; Rouse (eds.). Apollodorus The Library. Vol. 1. The Loeb Classical Library London : William Heinemann, New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 4. ark:/13960/t00012x9f.
- ^ "Myths" (Geocities), archived from the original on 27 October 2009
- ^ a b c EB (1911).
- ^ a b c d e f EB (1878).
- ^ Yearbook of 22 Edward IV. fol. 32b.
- ^ "Saxe-Altenburg", Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed.
- ^ a b Philips, Amali (2003). "Stridhanam: Rethinking Dowry, Inheritance and Women's Resistance Among the Syrian Christians of Kerala." Anthropologica. Canadian Anthropology Society.
- ^ ISBN 9781317818656.
- ^ Wall, Richard Wall; Hareven, Tamara K.; Ehmer, Joseph (eds.), Family History Revisited: Comparative Perspectives, pp. 343–344
- ^ The Influence of the Great Code "Yasa" on the Mongolian Empire, archived from the original on 15 June 2013
- ^ The Arts of the Mongols
- ^ (Linguist List), archived from the original on 10 April 2002
- ^ "Bamboo Buildings of the Dai Ethnics - CITS". www.cits.net. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
- ^ Yngste sons rätt, Nordisk familjebok. (in Swedish)
Bibliography
- Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878), , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 64
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Borough English", Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 273–274.
- Gardiner, Judith (ed.). The Penguin Dictionary of British History..
- Horioka, Charles Yuji. Are the Japanese Selfish, Altruistic or Dynastic? (PDF).
