[freddie_mercury]

Check out:

The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama, which has a pretty long section about how the Catholic Church in medieval Europe worked really hard to break up the power of clans. (It is one reason why they forced priests to become celebate.)

Along the same lines see History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church by Henry Lea.

South America's conversion to Catholicism came long after this period was largely over.

Family & extended family in Western Europe and the US is nothing like it is in some other places in the world. Do you -- and 50 other descendents -- take a plane trip every year to go to your grandfather's grave 1,000 miles away to pray to him on the anniversary of the day he died for good luck? We do that here.