Death, Deeds, and Descendents: Inheritance in Modern America

by Clignet,Remi

• ISBN13: 9780202362564
• ISBN10: 0202362566
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-08-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Clignet’s analysis of inheritance patterns in modernAmerica is the first sustained treatment of the subject bya sociologist. Clignet shows that even today inheritanceserves to perpetuate both familial wealth and familialrelations. He examines what leads decedents to chose particularlegal instruments (wills, trusts, insurance policies,gifts inter vivos) and how, in turn, the instrument chosenhelps explain the extent and the form of inequalities inbequests, of a result of the gender or matrimonial statusof the beneficiaries.The author’s major is to identify and explain the mostsignificant sources of variations in the amount and thedirection of transfers of wealth after death in the UnitedStates. He uses two kinds of primary data: estate tax returnsfi led by a sample of male and female beneficiariesto estates in 1920 and 1944, representing two successivegenerations of estate transfers, and publicly recordedlegal instruments such as wills and trusts. In addition,Clignet draws widely on secondary sources in the fieldsof anthropology, economics, and history. His findingsreflect substantive and methodological concerns. Theanalysis underlines the need to rethink the sociology ofgenerational bonds, as it is informed by age and gender.Death, Deeds, and Descendants underscores the varietyof forms of inequality that bequests take and highlightsthe complexity of interrelations between the cultures ofthe decedents’ nationalities and issues like occupationand gender. Inheritance is viewed as a way of illuminatingthe subtle tensions between continuity and change inAmerican society. This book is an important contributionto the study of the relationship between sociology of thefamily and sociology of social stratification.