CAHIERS QUEBECOIS DE DEMOGRAPHIE

Canada (Montréal) 07

SPRING 1996 - VOLUME 25, NUMBER 1

Demographic Knowledge and Power Usage in the Third World. Historical Perspectives

Issue Directed by Raymond R. GERVAIS

97.07.1 - French - Michel CARTIER, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris (France)

Population recording and census: The Chinese tradition (Enregistrement de la population et recensements. La tradition chinoise) (p. 13-38)

The case of China is in many ways exemplary, due to both its extremely long history and the fact that the Chinese approach influenced other countries over the course of the centuries, and can thus be viewed as a model. The first 'censuses' were intended as an administrative tool, to manage lists of those subject to the corvée. As administrative regulations evolved, these lists were made obsolete and replaced, with the change of dynasty in 1644, by fiscal records. From 1740 to 1780, in order to link economic knowledge -- especially grain prices -- to the demographic situation, the central government urged local authorities to produce nominative records. Genealogies, rich in information, were another source of knowledge. With certain alterations, the Chinese model spread into the surrounding region, including Japan, Vietnam and Korea. Each of these societies, influenced by its history, showed various similarities and differences with regard to this model. (CHINA, EASTERN ASIA, HISTORY, POPULATION CENSUS, POPULATION REGISTERS, TAXES)

97.07.2 - French - Roland LARDINOIS, Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris (France)

Rumblings, resistance and rebellion: The implementation of censuses in colonial India (18th-20th century) (Rumeurs, résistances, rébellions : la mise en place des recensements dans l'Inde coloniale (XVIIIe-XXe siècles)) (p. 39-68)

The author examines how the population of colonial India reacted to enumeration practices developed by the British for fiscal and demographic purposes. Three types of reactions predominated during this period: rumblings, resistance -- either spontaneous (primarily among the Santhal tribes) or politically organized, sparked by the nationalist movement of the 1920s and 1930s -- and violent revolts, especially among the tribal Bhil in western India. It is interesting to relate such reactions, which often intermingled, to the building of a modern colonial state. (INDIA, HISTORY, COLONIZATION, ENUMERATION)

97.07.3 - French - Robert H. JACKSON, Department of History, Geography and Economics, Texas Southern University (U.S.A.)

The creation of changing definition of demographic knowledge: The case of mestizaje in the corporate indigenous communities of the Valle Bajo of Cochabamba, Bolivia (Naissance et métamorphoses du savoir démographique : le mestizaje des communautés indigènes de la Valle Bajo de Cochabamba, en Bolivie) (p. 69-99)

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Spanish officials and members of the Catholic church created a series of race-based caste terms designed to identify and categorize the peoples of mixed ancestry. The Spanish American caste system relied on the assumed ability of a census-taker or priest to define the blood lines of an individual based on skin cotlr and physical characteristics. However, the demographic knowledge created from the caste system was imprecise, and changed over time. Individual priests and census-takers showed idiosyncratic preferences for the use of one or another caste term. There were, for example, significant short-term shifts in the registration of caste terms in parish registers related to the arrival and/or departure of priests. There were also long-term shifts in the meaning of terms and the definitions of status caused by socioeconomic changes. An example is the rapid rate of apparent mestizoization in the corporate indigenous communities of the Valle Bajo of Cochabamba, Bolivia. The rapid increase in the number of mestizos was related to changing definitions of the status and identity of indigenous peoples, and was not strictly caused by racial mixture. (BOLIVIA, HISTORY, COLONIZATION, RACES, MISCEGENATION, METISSAGE, QUALITY OF DATA)

97.07.4 - French - Raymond R. GERVAIS, Centre d'études sur les régions en développement, Université McGill, Montréal (Canada)

The colonial state and demographic knowledge in French West Africa, 1904-1960 (État colonial et savoir démographique en AOF, 1904-1960) (p. 101-131)

Our lack of knowledge on the production of population estimates in France's colonial empire is in sharp contrast to the efforts of British authorities after 1940. To understand this 'omission,' we have to assess the numerous oppositions existing within the French colonial state: oppositions between the various administrative levels, between administrative tasks and technical functions, and between the colonial system and the rest of the international community. In demography as in many other areas, metropolitan France's institutional and operational structures were imposed on overseas administrators, with the notable particularity that the process of counting acquired preeminence over methodological concerns. Then, after the first memoranda of 1904 and 1909, colonial census-taking activities were inexorably merged with everyday administrative tasks: taxation, justice, policing, etc. This shift clearly influenced the form and function of demographic knowledge in French West Africa (AOF). The development of classification categories, estimation methods and legislation (especially regarding vital statistics) was all negatively affected by such pressures. The latent opposition between administrators and technicians was thus fueled by frequent contradictions between annual census statistics and the results of sampling surveys after 1954. We conclude with a mixed assessment of attempts to amass demographic knowledge and especially of the influence such knowledge actually had on decision-making. (WESTERN AFRICA, HISTORY, COLONIZATION, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, ENUMERATION, QUALITY OF DATA)

97.07.5 - French - Yolande PELCHAT, Département d'anthropologie, Université Laval, Québec (Canada)

Demographic trends in sub-Saharan Africa: The ambiguity of "cultural" explanations (Expliquer les tendances démographiques en Afrique subsaharienne : les ambiguïtés du recours à la " culture ") (p. 133-162)

Demographic knowledge has become the focus of challenge and study. Like researchers in other disciplines demographers are questioning the uses and social impacts of the knowledge they produce. However, although concerns have been expressed about how demographic knowledge is perverted for political and administrative ends -- with detrimental social consequences -- there seems to be less interest in the objects of demographers' work. By looking at research studies supporting the thesis of an 'African system' controlling procreative and sexual behaviour, this article highlights the hybrid nature of demographic knowledge and the various issues involved in the hypothesis of a 'distinct Africa.' (AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA, DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH)

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