Back to home page1993
93.84.01. - French - Alain BIDEAU, Centre Pierre Léon, UA CNRS 223, Université Lyon II, Lyon (France), Ana-Maria BURMESTER, Département d'histoire, Université fédérale du Parana, Parana (Brazil), and Guy BRUNET, Département de démographie, Institut Européen des Génomutations et Université de Lyon II, Lyon (France)
Families in Curitiba, Brazil, in the 18th Century : The Fertility Approach (Les familles de Curitiba (Brésil) au XVIIIe siècle - Approche de la fécondité) (p. 7-24)
The population of Curitiba, a small town in Southern Peru, experienced rapid growth at the end of the 18th century. By 1785, the white population had reached 3,000, not to mention the approximately 1,000 slaves present. Owing to the data's limitations, only the fertility of the white population can be studied. The number of children is over 10 for women married between the ages of 20 and 24. Age at last birth is advanced, but a rather significant percentage of couples become sterile once the wife is past thirty. This high fertility confirms and enrichens former observations concerning Latin America in the 18th century. (BRAZIL, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, FERTILITY)
93.84.02 - French - Gérard BOUCHARD, Centre interuniversitaire SOREP, Université du Québec, Chicoutimi (Canada)
Trends in Prenuptial Conceptions as an Indicator of Cultural Change (L'évolution des conceptions prénuptiales comme indicateur de changement culturel) (p. 25-49)
Making use of the reconstituted families of the BALSAC population register, the author has studied the evolution of the prenuptial conceptions (PNC) taken as an indicator of the socio-cultural change in the Saguenay region between 1842 and 1971. All through the period, the frequency of the PNC was very low (3% - 9%), attesting to a strict compliance with the Catholic church's rule regarding procreative behavior (but not necessarily abstinence of any sexual activity). This result is confirmed by the low level of illegitimate births and by a body of comparative data. However, the curve of the PNC rises slightly but steadily from 1922-1931 onward. In other respects, the search for correlations with about a dozen independant variables led to conclude that the overall illegitimacy behaviors were deeply and quite uniformly rooted in the whole regional culture. One is even driven to wonder if there was not a French-Canadian illegitimacy pattern, at least in rural Quebec. Finally, the paper devotes a large place to methodological issues, thus drawing the attention to the important difficulties inherent in this kind of investigation, particularly when it makes room for a comparative dimension. In this regard, let's mention that the author has benefited from the access to a molecular data-set in order to estimate the under-registration of illegitimate births. (CANADA, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, PREMARITAL CONCEPTIONS)
93.84.03 - French - John A. DICKINSON and Jan GRABOWSKI, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7 (Canada)
The Amerindian Populations of the Lawrence Valley, 1608-1765 (Les populations amérindiennes de la vallée Laurentienne, 1608-1765) (p. 51-65)
The literature concerning colonial American populations has emphasized their dramatic decline as a result of the impact of European disease. The relative abundance of source material facilitates the observation of the evolution of native populations in the St. Lawrence valley. Following an initial series of epidemics in the 1630s, the population declined from about 500 to 200 individuals. This decline was compensated for by important migrations of Hurons in the 1650s and Iroquois and Abenakis thereafter. By 1675, the native population of the St. Lawrence valley surpassed that of the immediate precontact period. The population of the native villages close to French settlements stabilized around 2,500 people during the 18th century, and rose to over 4,000 in wartime with the influx of refugees. The results of this study underline the fact that native populations in a given territory could stabilize and even increase long after the arrival of Europeans and the importance of migrations to understand Indian population dynamics. (CANADA, AMERINDIANS, HISTORY)
93.84.04 - French - Margarita KARAMIHOVA, Institut national d'ethnographie, Sofia (Bulgaria)
From Ethnology to Demography: Births and Newborn Children in Traditional Bulgarian Society (Entre l'ethnologie et la démographie : accouchées et nouveau-nés dans la société bulgare traditionnelle) (p. 67-74)
In the paper, an attempt is made to uncover the signs of the demograhic conditions in the popular culture of Bulgarian society during the Ottoman domination (15th-19th). Because of the lack of relative quantitative data, the ethnological study helps the indirect reconstruction of the level of mothers and new-born mortality. The traces of high mortality could be discovered in the midst of beliefs, customs and practices in both religious communities - Christians and Mohammedans. Their origin is pre-monotheistic. (BULGARIA, HISTORY, ETHNOLOGY)
The Urban Handicap and the Decline in Mortality in England and Wales, 1851-1900 (Le handicap urbain et le déclin de la mortalité en Angleterre et au Pays de Galles, 1851-1900) (p. 75-105)
This paper is a research on the causes of the mortality in England and Wales during the second half of 19th century, their evolution and the very large difference between the cities and the country, and what is the urban penalty. The difficulty lies in measuring the causes of mortality; we must achieve a most in-depth research on the influence of each disease and on the definition of the administrative districts. Therefore, this paper is characterized by a great methodological effort. To undertake the research, it was necessary to construct an urban sample - and it was particularly difficult work, as is showed in the appendix - and a rural sample. The research must be continued, but today, it is clear that the great difference for the adults between cities and countries must be explained by respiratory tuberculosis. As for the gap in life expectancy, it is always large, because the country has also known an improvement in its mortality. (UNITED KINGDOM, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, CAUSES OF DEATH, RURAL-URBAN DIFFERENTIALS)
93.84.06 - French - Mircea KIVU, IMAS, Bucarest (Romania)
A Retrospective View of Romanian Population Policy, 1945-1989 (Une rétrospective: la politique démographique en Roumanie, 1945-1989) (p. 107-126)
The history of the last 45 years of totalitarian regime that dealt severely with the East-European countries is rather unknown. Romania has a special place, with a communism more repressive than elsewhere mixed with an exalted nationalism. Understanding the mechanisms of this system is a necessary step to demolishing it. The demograhic policy was closely linked to the peculiar logic of the system. This paper tries to find the roots of a demographic regime too often judged simply as an aberration and to demonstrate that it was aberrant just as much as the global system was. (ROMANIA, HISTORY, POPULATION POLICY)
93.84.07 - French - Pierre-André Meyer
The Demography of the Jewish Population of Metz, 1740-1789 (Démographie des Juifs de Metz (1740-1789)) (p. 127-160)
The Jewish community of Metz, which was officially incorporated in 1595, experienced for nearly one and half centuries a substantial population growth which was sustained by strong immigration. During the two decades preceding the French Revolution, this increase was replaced by a stagnation due to progressively less favourable economic and material conditions. The fluctuation of the migratory flows is the main explanation of this phenomenon, but it is also the result of a new demographic behaviour which tends to detach itself from the traditional Jewish religious norms. This stagnation resulted from the rising age at marriage, from the reduction of marital fertility and from the high rates of infant and child mortality under pressure of the growing economic difficulties. The demographic behaviour of the Jews of Metz in the second half of the 18th century does not correspond with the stereotyped views of the time. It reflects the crisis of a community fighting with changes which are enforced by the outside world. Although this behaviour is still marked by tradition, it suggests that the patterns of the Western Jewish family of the industrial age were already under way. (FRANCE, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, JEWS)
93.84.08 - French - Simone MREJEN-O'HANA
The Jewish Marriage Under the "Ancien Régime" - The Example of Carpentras, 1773-1792 (Le mariage juif sous l'ancien régime - l'exemple de Carpentras (1773-1792)) (p. 161-170)
Within the French papal dominions comprising the County of Venaissin and Avignon, four different Jewish communities may be distinguished on the basis of ancestral traditions, in particular marital customs. Marriage was celebrated in two distinct stages, erüsin engagements and Nissü'in weddings, which were separated by intervals of many years. Based on a bilingual religious registry kept by the rabbi, the analysis of these unions reveals a tendency to perform marriages on festival days, which was forbidden by religious law. Moreover, the analysis situates a couple's average age for their first marriage at 25.7 years for boys and 23.5 for girls which is early in comparison to Catholics. Nevertheless, on the eve of the French Revolution, Jewish custom was nearing that of the Catholics and Protestants, in particular marriages were being progressively celebrated at more advanced ages. Such change suggests a break with the ancient Jewish world, bringing an end to one of France's oldest Jewish communites. (FRANCE, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, JEWS, MARRIAGE)
93.84.09 - English - Hubert P.H. Nusteling, University of Nijmegen (Netherlands)
English Population Statistics for the First Half of the 19th Century: A New Answer to Old Questions (p. 171-189)
Extrapolation and back-projection of the number of inhabitants of England in 1871 according to the so-called homeostatic method based on fertile marriages, seem to be quite reliable in general, with the exception of the results for 1801 and 1841. According to the hitherto available literature on the subject, the variance for 1801 is seen to be due to the incompleteness of the first census. With regard to the problematical year 1841, the present article tries to prove in several ways that, contrary to prevailing opinion, the reasons for the well-known discrepancies between the official counting of births beginning in 1837 and the census of 1841, must not so much be looked for in the lacunae of the current statistics but rather in the double-countings while the census was taken. This implies that the results of the homeostatic method used for the year 1841 are in fact reliable. (ENGLAND, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, QUALITY OF DATA)
93.84.10 - French - Michel ORIS, Laboratoire de démographie, Université de Liège, Liège (Belgium)
The Experience of Huy-sur-Meuse, Belgium, from 1847 to 1900 (La transition de la mobilité au XIXe siècle - l'expérience de Huy-sur-Meuse (Belgique) entre 1847 et 1900) (p. 191-225)
This article is a case study about 58,394 migrants observed in a small Belgian central town between 1846 and 1900, using the registers of population which are an exceptional source. The analysis attaches a lot of importance to the methods of mobile population description, more particularly by resort to "a geographical information system". Only part of the results is set out here, around the theme of the mobility transition. The ratio evolution between space and time is studied in the aggregate and in terms of demographic or original characteristics. At Huy, 50% of immigrants start out before 10 years, and about a quarter before 2 years. The town gains just-married people with children and loses unmarried people. The migratory balance is positive with the nearby country and negative with the big town. The migratory delay hypothesis introduces light and shade, while the distinction between final and alternating migrations seems to be artificial. (BELGIUM, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY)
93.84.11 - French - Suzy PASLEAU, Université de Liège, Liège (Belgium)
The Immigration of Workers to Seraing in the Second Half of the 19th Century (L'immigration des travailleurs à Seraing durant la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle) (p. 227-250)
Within a century, Seraing which was a village in 1800 (with 1,800 inhabitants) becomes an agglomeration of more than 40,000 inhabitants in 1910. While the economic growth extends the commercial and supplying spaces of the enterprises, the migratory fields are continuously growing. The extension of the railways system and the low cost of transport stimulates both of the evolutions. Paradoxically, the mean distance covered by the migrants decreases independently of economic depression in Seraing between 1877 and 1887. The attraction of this town declines with the increase and the competition of industries nearby. During the end of the 19th century, Seraing functions as a relay center for the worker manpower's recruiting in the province of Liège. Its migratory balance is positive regarding the less industrialized places, and negative regarding the other ones. Thus, the first stage of the country people's transformation into townsmen takes place in Seraing transit center. The economic depression does not have very much influence in the migrant profile. The requirement of professional recruiting is still prevalent. Its effects apply only to migrant numbers, although they are not very marked. The decrease of immigration and migration rates is its only distinctive feature. (BELGIUM, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, URBANIZATION, LABOUR MIGRATION)
93.84.12 - French - José Luis PETRUCCELLI
French Influences on Brazilian Thinking: Races, People and Population, 1890-1930 (Influences françaises sur la pensée brésilienne: races, peuples et population (1890-1930)) (p. 251-262)
By the end of the 19th century, Brazilian intellectuals of the First Republic established in 1889, just 18 months after the abolition of slavery on 13th May 1888, were concerned about racial heterogeneity as a potential obstacle to the construction of a national identity. Dominated by European thoughts of human inequality, the majority of them took sides with the doctrine of the "whitening" of population : blacks and mestizos were perceived as a constraint to development possibilities of Brazil. "Caucasien" immigration was encouraged with as much strength as Asiatic workers importation was opposed. The influence of the Count of Gobineau and Louis Couty is analysed here, as well as the ideas of different Brazilian thinkers of the time, among whom were some opponents to the dominant thought. (BRAZIL, IDEOLOGY, RACES)
93.84.13 - French - Christine PIETTE and Barrie M. RATCLIFFE, Université Laval, Cité universitaire, Québec, QC G1K 7P4 (Canada)
Migrants and the City : A New Look at Early 19th Century Paris (Les migrants et la ville: un nouveau regard sur le Paris de la première moitié du XIXe siècle) (p. 263-302)
Despite the manifold conceptual, methodological and source problems posed, we need to analyse immigrants in the Paris of the first half of the 19th century because of their weight in the history and historiography of the French capital. More than 30 years after the publication of Louis Chevalier's "Classes laborieuses et classes dangereuses", whose dark vision has long dominated thinking about Paris at this time, new research on migration processes in France in general and our analysis of hitherto unused sources allow us to re-evaluate the numerical importance and the provenance of newcomers to Paris, as well as how they inserted into urban life. Immigrants constituted the majority of the city's population at this time, just as they did in preceeding and following periods. The basin from which they were drawn can be clearly defined and can also be shown to be widening from the early part of the century onwards. Even if proportionally more immigrants encounter socio-economic difficulties than do native-born Parisians, we suggest that, on the whole, their insertion into the urban economy and space was much less difficult than elite contemporaries and scholars have so far believed. (FRANCE, CAPITAL CITY, HISTORY, IN-MIGRATION)
93.84.14 - French - Jean-Louis ROBERT, Université d'Orléans, Orléans (France), and Jay WINTER, Pembroke College Cambridge, Cambridge (U.K.)
An Unknown Aspect of Great War Urban Demography: The Drama of the Elderly in Berlin, London and Paris (Un aspect ignoré de la démographie urbaine de la Grande Guerre: le drame des vieux à Berlin, Londres et Paris) (p. 303-328)
This article surveys the mortality of the elderly (60+) population in London, Paris and Berlin during the Great War. These three capitals all registered increased mortality rates at advanced ages in 1917-1918. The situation was particularly grave in Berlin, reflecting the general crisis facing the city at the end of the war. The increase in death rates in the Allied capitals reflected the marginalization of the aged during the war, their neglect in social policy, their relative isolation, material difficulties and stress at a time of mass mourning. Bourgeois districts were hardest hit by such war-related developments. Consequently, there was a re-cordering of the relative position of different social groups with respect to mortality at advanced ages in the war and post-war period. (GERMANY, ENGLAND, FRANCE, WAR, AGED)
93.84.15 - English - Jay WINTER, Jon LAWRENCE and Jackie ARIOUAT, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (U.K.)
The Impact of the Great War on Infant Mortality in London (p. 329-353)
This paper presents evidence for a moderately optimistic account of the impact of the First World War on infant survival rates in London. The full effects of the war were not exhausted in November 1918. By examining the period immediately before and after the war, we show firstly, that the 1914-1918 conflict was a time of slowly declining infant mortality in London, and secondly, that the rate of decline accelerated after 1918. Before the Armistice, infant mortality rates were the result of both positive and negative aspects of war-related conditions. After 1918, most of the war's deleterious effects faded, whereas the positive aspects of wartime developments in infant health in London continued to enhance survival chances in the post-war years. (ENGLAND, WAR, INFANT MORTALITY)
Back to home page