Historical Demography

Peasant Marriage in Nineteenth-Century Russia

by Avdeev Alexandre

Co-authored with Alain Blum and Irina Troitskaia, published in 'Population' (English Edition), 2004, vol.59, no 6, p.1-44

The great historical syntheses concerning European family models present Russia as the most typical example of the... more The great historical syntheses concerning European family models present Russia as the most typical example of the eastern model of universal marriage. Very little is known, however, about the manner in which this result was obtained in practice, nor what effect historical and social changes had on marriage timing and frequency. The authors use parish registers and taxation lists to reconstitute the evolution of marriage during the nineteenth century in three rural villages near Moscow. They describe the functioning of the marriage market and the influence of serfdom. Tying peasants to a landowner and his land, this system forced those wishing to marry to do so within their community of origin. With the abolition of serfdom in 1861, this onerous constraint disappeared and the recruitment area for spouses expanded. Before and after 1861, however, marriage remained subject to the patriarchal rules of rural communities. Wives generally went to live with their husband’s family, and contributed to its wealth. The fact that marriage was not linked to the need to amass a patrimony beforehand partly explains its early and universal nature.

Urban & rural population in Greece 1900-1950 (In Greek)

by Kostas Mavreas

Yiddish in the Former Soviet Union Since 1959: A Statistical-Demographic Analysis

by Mark Tolts

Paper presented at the conference “Yiddish in the Contemporary World”, University of Oxford, 19-21 April 1998 [Revised as of 4 May 2012]

This paper is based mainly on the results of the post-war Soviet censuses concerning respondents’ native language and... more This paper is based mainly on the results of the post-war Soviet censuses concerning respondents’ native language and second language. The statistical data on Yiddish were studied for the former union republics of the USSR and their capitals. For Belorussia, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the data were also studied for their different regions. In the 1994 Russian microcensus, a question on the primary language of conversation at home was asked for the first time, and the respective data concerning Yiddish in the city of Moscow and Birobidzhan (“Jewish”) oblast were analyzed.

Population and Railways in Portugal, 1801-1930

by Nuno Miguel Lima

Published in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XLII (1), 2011, pp.29-52.
Co-authored with Luís Espinha da Silveira, Daniel Alves, Ana Alcântara, Josep Puig

Portuguese historiography has mostly adopted a pessimistic view regarding the contribution of the railways to the... more Portuguese historiography has mostly adopted a pessimistic view regarding the contribution of the railways to the development of country. Yet, railway access helped to increase population concentration and economic development, favoring migration into towns, the growth of pre-existing urban centers, and the emergence of new centers. But railways tended to be more beneficial to regions that were already prosperous and to aggravate the conditions unfavorable to development in areas with greater structural weaknesses.

Caminhos e ferro, população e desigualdades territoriais em Portugal, 1801-1930 / Railways, population and territorial inequality in Portugal, 1801-1930

by Nuno Miguel Lima

Published in Ler História, 61, 2011, pp.7-37
Co-authored with Luís Espinha da Silveira, Daniel Alves, Ana Alcântara, Josep Puig-Farré

A historiografia sobre os caminhos de ferro em Portugal tem analisado o seu impacto no país como um todo, dando pouca... more A historiografia sobre os caminhos de ferro em Portugal tem analisado o seu impacto no país como um todo, dando pouca atenção à sua influência na dinâmica populacional. Este artigo defende que os caminhos de ferro estimularam o crescimento da população nas áreas servidas por esta infraestrutura, contribuíram para o desenvolvimento urbano e incentivaram as migrações internas. Porém, os seus efeitos foram desiguais, pois a ferrovia beneficiou as zonas já prósperas (Norte Atlântico), tendo uma influência negativa em regiões com maiores debilidades estruturais (Norte Interior). Além disso, não foi capaz de atrair uma significativa população migrante.

Historiography on railways in Portugal has mainly analysed their impact on the country as a whole and has paid little attention to their influence on population dynamics. This article argues that railways stimulated population growth in the areas served by this infrastructure that they contributed to urban development and encouraged internal migration. Their effects, however, were not the same in all parts of the country: railways benefited the already prosperous regions (Atlantic North) and had a negative influence in areas with greater structural weaknesses (Inland North). Beyond that it was unable to attract a significant migrant population.

Ricostruire e analizzare un’intera popolazione. Prospettive metodologiche, euristiche e uso del computer

by Michaël Gasperoni

Published in 'Popolazione e storia', 2010/1

Reconstructing and analyzing a whole population on the basis of multiple sources is no simple task. Any attempt to... more Reconstructing and analyzing a whole population on the basis of multiple sources is no simple task. Any attempt to analyze a complex and dense genealogical network is bound to come across a large number of practical, methodological and epistemological problems. Already at the preliminary stage, both data collection and the choice of sources require a rigorous methodology, which must be reconsidered over and over again in the course of the research. The TIP research group has long started a reflection not only on population censuses and the results that can be obtained from their analysis, but also on the very structure of social and matrimonial networks as scientific constructions. The group has developed a software (PUCK: Programme for the Use and Computation of Kinship Data), which is capable not only of analyzing the matrimonial structure of any network, but also of tackling issues concerning the completeness of genealogical information, the density of the network, the errors it might contain. This article provides illustrations of the potentialities of this programme drawing on archival material collected for a research that has allowed me to reconstitute the whole population of the Republic of San Marino from the second half of the fifteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century.

Population since World War I [up to the 21st Century]

by Mark Tolts

The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe / Online Edition, 2010

This article is a broad overview of numerical dynamics, demographic processes and mixed marriage among the Jewish... more This article is a broad overview of numerical dynamics, demographic processes and mixed marriage among the Jewish populations of Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia), Baltic States, the Soviet Union as a whole and the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belorussia, and Moldavia separately.

Ethnicity, Religion and Demographic Change in Russia: Russians, Tatars and Jews

by Mark Tolts

Published in: Evolution or Revolution in European Population (European Population Conference, Milano 1995), Vol. 2. Milan: EAPS and IUSSP, 1996, pp. 165-179

This paper is the first to compare ethnicity, religion and demographic change among Jews, Russians and Tatars in... more This paper is the first to compare ethnicity, religion and demographic change among Jews, Russians and Tatars in Russia proper. These three groups were chosen specifically because they represent distinctive religions, as well as greatly differing ethnic backgrounds and cultures. The demographic transition of these three very different ethnic groups was studied for a period of over one hundred years. Ample Russian demographic statistics by ethnic group provided a good basis for such analysis.

Kvinner, barn og pølsepinner - Demografiske drypp fra det eldste Bergen

by Gitte Hansen

Mortality and morbidity in the city of Bern, Switzerland, 1805-1815 with special emphasis on infant, child and maternal deaths.

by Sandra Lösch

Rüttimann D, Loesch S.

Department of Physical Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.

This article contributes to the research on demographics and public health of urban populations of preindustrial... more This article contributes to the research on demographics and public health of urban populations of preindustrial Europe. The key source is a burial register that contains information on the deceased, such as age and sex, residence and cause of death. This register is one of the earliest compilations of data sets of individuals with this high degree of completeness and consistency. Critical assessment of the register's origin, formation and upkeep promises high validity and reliability. Between 1805 and 1815, 4,390 deceased inhabitants were registered. Information concerning these individuals provides the basis for this study. Life tables of Bern's population were created using different models. The causes of death were classified and their frequency calculated. Furthermore, the susceptibility of age groups to certain causes of death was established. Special attention was given to causes of death and mortality of newborns, infants and birth-giving women. In comparison to other cities and regions in Central Europe, Bern's mortality structure shows low rates for infants (q(0)=0.144) and children (q(1-4)=0.068). This could have simply indicated better living conditions. Life expectancy at birth was 43 years. Mortality was high in winter and spring, and decreased in summer to a low level with a short rise in August. The study of the causes of death was inhibited by difficulties in translating early 19th century nomenclature into the modern medical system. Nonetheless, death from metabolic disorders, illnesses of the respiratory system, and debilitation were the most prominent causes in Bern. Apparently, the worst killer of infants up to 12 months was the "gichteren", an obsolete German term for lethal spasmodic convulsions. The exact modern identification of this disease remains unclear. Possibilities such as infant tetanus or infant epilepsy are discussed. The maternal death rate of 0.72% is comparable with values calculated from contemporaneous sources. Relevance of childbed fever in the early 1800s was low. Bern's data indicate that the extent of deaths related to childbirth in this period is overrated. This research has an explicit interdisciplinary value for various fields including both the humanities and natural sciences, since information reported here represents the complete age and sex structure of a deceased population. Physical anthropologists can use these data as a true reference group for their palaeodemographic studies of preindustrial Central Europe of the late 18th and early 19th century. It is a call to both historians and anthropologists to use our resources to a better effect through combination of methods and exchange of knowledge.

‘Η απογραφή των Κραβάρων στο οθωμανικό φορολογικό κατάστιχο ΜΜ10 (1454-1455)’, Ναυπακτιακά 15 (2007-2009), 415-561.

by Georgios Liakopoulos

‘I apografi ton Kravaron sto othomaniko forologiko katastiho MM10 (1454-1455), Naupaktiaka 15 (2007-2009), 415-561.
‘The Census of Kravara in the MM10 Ottoman Taxation Cadastre (1454-1455)’, Naupaktiaka 15 (2007-2009), 415-561.

The study comprises an annotated edition of the MM10 Ottoman Taxation Cadastre pertaining to the district of Kravara... more The study comprises an annotated edition of the MM10 Ottoman Taxation Cadastre pertaining to the district of Kravara in Central Greece.The introduction explores the economic, demographical and geographical aspects of the cadastre.

Introduction: Longitudinal Analysis of Historical-Demographic Data

by Emily Merchant

Co-authored with G.C. Alter, M.P. Gutmann, and S.H. Leonard. Published in Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42:4 (Spring 2012), special issue on longitudinal historical demographic analysis, ed. idem.

Understanding the complexity of the historical demographic transition—the secular change from high to low levels of... more Understanding the complexity of the historical demographic transition—the secular change from high to low levels of mortality and fertility in Western Europe and the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—has long been a major goal of historical demography. Recent developments in individual-level life-course databases and longitudinal statistical models have allowed scholars to test ever-more complex hypotheses about the causal factors in demographic change and to develop an increasingly fine-grained image of demographic behavior before, during, and after the transition. Such studies are critical for identifying variation, both between and within societies, obscured by secular trends that appear uniform at the macro-level, and for distinguishing the contingent elements of demographic change from the universal elements. The six articles presented in this special issue bring new substantive and methodological insights to the field of historical demography—revealing the responsiveness of pre-transition fertility to changing contexts, tracking the transmission of new fertility practices, exploring the unevenness of mortality and fertility decline, and documenting the changing role of social institutions in family formation.

Condiciones de vida y mortalidad en Teabo, Yucatán, México, 1930-1999.

by Vera Tiesler

Book Review: Minoru Yasumoto, 'The Rise of a Victorian Ironopolis: Middlesbrough and Regional Industrialization'. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011. xv + 230pp. 5 plates. 119 figures and tables. Bibliography. £60.00

by Tosh Warwick

'Urban History', Vol.39, No.1, pp.190-192

La demografía histórica de principios del siglo XX del sur de Quintana Roo

by ALLAN ORTEGA-MUÑOZ

"Published in Paradigmas y retos de la bioarqueología mexicana"

Observaciones políticas y naturales hechas a partir de los boletines de mortalidad

by Juan Manuel García González

Traducción y presentación.

La paleodemografía:¿ un instrumento para simular el comportamiento demográfico del pasado? Análisis comparativo con la demografía histórica en la Ciudad de …

by ALLAN ORTEGA-MUÑOZ

"Pubished in Estudios Demograficos y Urbanos, 2004"

Presenta los resultados del análisis paleodemográfico del Panteón de Santa Paula del Siglo XIX en la Ciudad de México... more Presenta los resultados del análisis paleodemográfico del Panteón de Santa Paula del Siglo XIX en la Ciudad de México y su comparación con un análisis demográfico de los registros de estadísticas vitales de su correspondiente parroquia.

Nutrition, hygiene, and mortality. Setting parameters for Roman health and life expectancy consistent with our comparative evidence

by Geoffrey Kron

In E. Lo Cascio (a cura di), L’impatto della “peste antonina,” (Collana di Pragmateiai) (Bari: Edipuglia) (in press)

Any hypotheses regarding the likely long-term demographic impact of the Antonine plague will have to take into... more Any hypotheses regarding the likely long-term demographic impact of the Antonine plague will have to take into account, not only the cause of the epidemic, but also the underlying mortality and fertility regime of the Roman empire. Health, nutritional status and hygiene have a significant effect upon the virulence of some epidemics, while for others, like the bubonic plague, for example, they are largely irrelevant. But whatever the effect on the morbidity of the epidemic, the underlying mortality regime of the population will have a significant impact on determining both the extent to which the population will be able to absorb this excess mortality, and the extent to which it will or will not recover.

At least since the influential work of Keith Hopkins in the 1960’s, a broad consensus has emerged among ancient historians setting the life expectancy at birth in the Roman Principate and Empire at between 20 and 30 years of age, with most estimates falling on the lower end of this range, often below 25 years. As the trenchant critiques of Tim Parkin and Walter Scheidel have emphasized, however, solid evidence for the calculation of ancient life expectancy simply does not exist. Recent estimates must therefore remain largely educated guesses based on comparative evidence from early-industrial Europe or the contemporary Third World. I intend to argue that at least three strong considerations suggest that the present scholarly consensus is unrealistically low. .

First, a more careful reading of the modern demographic evidence will show that the life expectancies as low as those conjectured for Roman Italy are rarely documented for Western European societies, generally only in brief periods of extreme poverty and stress, or for limited segments of society.

Second, researchers of ancient demography have generally neglected the critical role of nutrition in the modern rise in life expectancy, as argued in a classic, if controversial, work by Thomas MacKeown, and confirmed by the correlation between the secular increase in heights and decline in mortality in modern Europe and North America drawn by Robert Fogel. In fact, anthropometric evidence of ancient heights suggests that Greco-Roman societies enjoyed a significantly higher biological standard of living than the working classes of 18th and 19th century Western Europe. Early industrial life expectancies are therefore likely to represent a floor, rather than a ceiling, for plausible Greco-Roman estimates.

Finally, there is evidence that, in addition to enjoying superior nutritional standards, Greco-Roman populations likely faced fewer health stresses from contaminated drinking water, over-crowding, poor hygiene and sanitation, lack of exercise, and social inequality generally than the poor of the European ancien régime.

The Augustan Census and the Population of Italy

by Geoffrey Kron

Athenaeum XCII, 2005, pp. 441-495.

(1999) Geographic morbidity differentials in the late nineteenth-century United States

by Cheryl Elman