Prácticas asistenciales en el mundo rural catalán. El papel de los masos durante la primera mitad del siglo XX

The objective of this study is to verify the role of the Catalan masos in the assistance system during the first half of the twentieth century. For this, first, it will review the existing tracks in the oral record. The image obtained will be confronted, secondly, with a census of the Guardia Civil conducted in 1946 in the province of Girona. It is concluded that, in mid-twentieth century, the social assistance offered by masos was much smaller than it is derived from memorialísticos stories, that probably was in a declining phase and, moreover, that there were significant gender differences between beneficiaries.