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1994 - VOLUME 19, NUMBER 3
"Families in Portugal: Resent Historical Research"
95.12.1 - English - Ana NUNES DE ALMEIDA, Instituto de Ciencias Sociais, University of Lisbon, Lisbon (Portugal) Industry, family, and class: The working-class community in Barreiro (p. 197-212)
Frequently placed on the edges of scientific debate and analyzed in relation to problems or theoretical constructs specific to other social groups, the portrait of the "working-class family" is too often the product of logical deductions and a sort of no-man's land. The research project described by the present article concerns factories, working-class groups, and family strategies in Barreiro, a Portuguese industrial town near Lisbon, the Portuguese capital. Special attention is given to reconstructing the industrial experience at a regional level and to the study of workers in the cork and heavy metallurgical industries of Barreiro. The results suggest the internal diversity of the working-class world and two different kinds of linkeage between family and workplace life - the survival strategy of cork workers in the 1920s, and the promotion strategy of the metal workers in the 1950s. (PORTUGAL, HISTORY, WORKING CLASS, FAMILY)
95.12.2 - English - Gaspar MARTINS PEREIRA, Department of Modern and Contemporary History, Faculty of Letters, University of Porto, Porto (Portugal) Housing, household, and the family: The "Ilhas" of Porto at the end of the 19th century (p. 213-236)
At the end of the 19th century, with the spread of urban growth and industrial activity - mainly the textile sector - the building of housing settlements ('ilhas') for the working classes developed in Porto, the most important city in the north of Portugal These 'urban communities' played an important socio-historical role in the socialization of the newly arrived workers, and created family behaviors and strategies grounded in the formation of young couples and neighborhood kin ties. This family structure adjusted to the cottage industry system, in which the simple family embodies the work group, prevailing in Porto at that time. (PORTUGAL, HISTORY, WORKING CLASS, HOUSING, HOUSEHOLD)
95.12.3 - English - Karin WALL, Instituto de Ciencias Sociais, University of Lisbon, Lisbon (Portugal) Peasant stem families in Northwestern Portugal: Life transitions and changing family dynamics (p. 237-259)
The article analyzes data on family forms and individual life experiences in two rural communities of the Baixo Minho (northwest Portugal) during the 20th century. It examines how social and economic differentiation shaped norms and practises, giving rise to a variety of family forms rather than a regional family pattern. The stem family is found to be characteristic of wealthy peasant farmers. Drawing on individual life histories in two different generations, the article traces changes in stem family dynamics under the impact of industrialization and modernization over the last 30 years. (PORTUGAL, PEASANTRY, MODERNIZATION, FAMILY COMPOSITION, STEM FAMILY)
95.12.4 - English - Andrew S. LONDON, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA (U.S.A.), and S. Philip MORGAN, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (U.S.A.)
Racial differences in first names in 1910 (p. 261-284)
This research examines concentration and similarity in the first name distributions of African Americans and whites resident in Mississippi in 1910. Data are drawn from the Public Use Sample of the 1910 Census, with names added from microfilm copies of original Census manuscripts. We find little difference in the degree of concentration of the name distributions and only modest dissimilarity in name choice. Multivariate analysis using age as a proxy for period of name assignment (birth cohort) indicates that racial differentiation in name choice increased over the period 1870 to 1910 primarily as a result of changes in the name choices of whites. We discuss these results in conjunction with the recent work of Lieberson and Bell (1992) on contemporary racial differences in naming patterns. Lieberson and Bell (1992) argue that African Americans in the contemporary period emphasize group differences by choosing 'African' or 'African sounding' names. In Mississippi in the period between the abolition of slavery and 1910, we argue that whites distanced themselves from African Americans by choosing increasingly the 'whitest' names (e.g., those disproportionately chosen by whites). Changing naming patterns are not orchestrated group responses. Instead, they reflect emergent cultural responses to fundamental social change. (UNITED STATES, HISTORY, RACES, GIVEN NAME)
95.12.5 - English - Andrew AUGUST, Department of History, Drew University, Madison, NJ 07940 (U.S.A.) How separate a sphere? Poor women and paid work in late-Victorian London (p. 285-309)
The essay traces patterns of poor women's employment in late 19th-century London. It shows that employment was common among single, married and widowed women, except among mothers of young children. Unpaid domestic work and paid employment dovetailed into a constant burden of work facing poor women. This challenges the prevalent argument that married women earned wages only at moments of severe crisis in the household economy. It reveals a culture of women's work among the poor that contrasts sharply with the ideology of separate spheres that excluded middle-class women from employment. (ENGLAND, HISTORY, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT, PROLETARIAT, WAGE EARNERS)
1994 - VOLUME 19, NUMBER 4
Studies in the Population History of Hungary
95.12.6 - English - Rudolf ANDORKA, Department of Sociology, Budapest University, Budapest (Hungary)
The historical demography of a proper Hungarian village: Atany in the 18th and 19th centuries (p. 311-331)
Atany is the first village in the Great Plain region in Hungary to be analyzed by means family reconstitution. Therefore it might be considered a 'typical' Hungarian village inhabited by 'proper peasants' (Fél and Hofer 1969). Mortality did not improve until the end of the 19th century. The age at first marriage for women was slightly above twenty years, and very few women remained single until the end of their reproductive ages. Fertility remained high until the end of the 19th century. The development of fertility was very different from the southern Transdanubian villages characterized by early birth control. Nearly half of the households had complicated structure, falling between the middle European, Mediterranean, and Eastern household types. These characteristics might be explained by the relative abundance of land in the Great Plain region. (HUNGARY, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, RURAL POPULATION, FAMILY RECONSTITUTION)
95.12.7 - English - Tamas FARAGO, Department of Sociology, University of Miskolc, 3515 Miskolc-Egyetemvaros (Hungary) Seasonality of marriages in Hungary from the 18th to the 20th century (p. 335-350)
In traditional Hungarian society the customary time for marriages and weddings was the late fall and the end of winter, according to earlier literature. But this picture does not correspond to the results of local studies in historical demography and does not fit the patterns identified through the analysis of official statistical data on marriage seasonality. There were at least half a dozen such regional patterns in traditional Hungarian society and these were defined much more strongly by religious denominations than by a connection to agriculture. The formation of regional seasonality patterns was also influenced by the level of urbanization and literacy, by the strength of traditional mentality, and of course by social and occupational stratification. (HUNGARY, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, NUPTIALITY, SEASONAL FLUCTUATIONS)
95.12.8 - English - Olga TOTH, Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary), and Peter ROBERT, Institute of Sociology, Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest (Hungary)
Sociological and historical aspects of entry into marriage (p. 351-368)
This study analyses the timing of first entry into marriage of Hungarian men and women born between 1916 and 1967. Marriages take place at a considerably earlier age than the West European average, and at the same time show significant differences between cohorts. In the course of the analysis we consider the social and economic circumstances which affect the timing of entry into marriage, and we connect the variables of men and women educational attainment with their age at marriage. In each cohort we examine the sociological characteristics of those who marry significantly earlier or later than the average for their generation, i.e. than the "normal" age. (HUNGARY, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, AGE AT MARRIAGE)
95.12.9 - English - Ferenc AJUS and Istvan HENYE, Department of Sociology, Budapest University, Budapest (Hungary) Illegitimacy in Hungary, 1880-1910 (p. 369-388)
The phenomenon of illegitimate births interests both sociologists and demographers. For sociologists, this is human activity that can be understood only by means of a thorough examination of the society and its norms that determine the action of the individual. For demographers, the understanding of illegitimate fertility may be a tool for understanding the underlying factors of fertility as a whole. Relatively little has been written on this subject in Hungary, however. The present study describes illegitimacy in Hungary between 1880 and 1910 in terms of trends and regional patterns, and seeks to find the reasons for variation in time and space. The trends are shown in their historical context, and are compared with trends of illegitimacy in Europe. The regional differences are analyzed using the Princeton indices, and it is concluded that although there is a consistent pattern that is evidently related to socioeconomic differences between regions, no single factor explains the pattern. (HUNGARY, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, ILLEGITIMATE FERTILITY, REGIONAL DEMOGRAPHY)
95.12.10 - English - Dezsö DANYI, Department of Research Institute, Central Statistical Office, Budapest (Hungary)
Villein households of the Palóc Population, 1836-1843 (p. 389-408)
The structure of villein households and families of thirteen villages is analyzed with the help of relatively reliable data, which contain information for the period 1836-1843. The Palóc population forms a distinct ethno-cultural group, located approximately 50-120 kilometers northeast of Budapest in a separate region. In creating a typology of villein households, we took into consideration the real household structure. The Laslett categories were not used. In the thirteen villages, the proportion of nuclear families was very low (22%) until the mid-19th century and joint families, involving direct and collateral relatives, were extremely important. The proportion of strangers, servants and unrelated individuals living in the family was insignificant. The size and structure of households and families was significantly determined by the age of household or family head. These structures were supposedly the result of the indivisibility of villein land, as well as other traditional factors. (HUNGARY, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, PEASANTRY, HOUSEHOLD SIZE, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION)
95.12.11 - English - Zoltan TOTH, andhnological Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary) Disintegration of the market-town social block of Szekszard at the turn of the 20th century (p. 409-425)
At the turn of the 20th century, the society of Szekszárd was divided into two broad socioeconomic groups with identities distinguished by occupation. A 'market-town block' was composed of small producers whose existence way based on physical labor: farmers, artisans, and the lowest ranks of the tradesmen, as well as the poor peasantry, day-laborers taking a part in small production, and the small-town workers. The other grouping consisted of people working in state and private administrative jobs, as well as of intellectuals, who began to appear in this community from the 18th century onward. Starting in the final decades of the 19th century, disintegrative processes - including social mobility and migration - can be detected quite clearly in the market-town block, and these are investigated with the aid of sources from the Orphans' Ward. The models of mobility in the traditional market-town structure emerge clearly from these data. (HUNGARY, HISTORY, SOCIAL STRATIFICATION, SOCIAL MOBILITY)
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