Unnatural Wills: Inheritance Disputes and Inequality

Abstract

Within the conceptual frame of relational economic sociology, inheritance disputes are a canonical form of relational mismatch.But the social patterning of relational mismatches, and their various ties to inequality, remain murky. In this paper, I examineall known inheritance disputes in Dallas from 1895–1945 within their social context to generate hypotheses about the rela-tionship between inequality and mismatches more broadly. Inheritance disputes were usually resolved by increasing the spreadof fortunes; in this sense, they moderated wealth inequality between individuals. But not everyone was equally able to maketheir preferred estate distribution a reality. Using a series of case studies, I argue that dispute resolutions tended to reifynormative family structures and naturalize sharp, moralized distinctions between fuzzy social categories. The legal resolutionsto this class of relational mismatches may marginally mitigate individual‐level wealth inequality and simultaneously producecategorical inequalities by race, class, gender, sexuality, and family structure. I conclude with a set of hypotheses and questionsfor future studies.