Abstract
The historical study of the intergenerational transmission of surnames in the areas ruled by the crowns of Castile and Portugal, peninsular and colonial, reveals a nearly universal sixteenth-century system of surname transmission that antedates the use of permanent hereditary surnames. Great flexibility in surname transmission allowed a child’s selection of a surname from among those of the extended pedigree, both maternal and paternal, demonstrating that Hispanic society did not, and does not, view the extended family in the patrilineal, male-dominated fashion of Anglo society. In the Iberian perspective, the entire extended family, back on all sides to the third and even fourth generation, is viewed as personally relevant.
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