Main description:

The International Union for the Scientific Study of Population’s Panel on Historical Demography applies a historical perspective, such as the importance of kinship networks for demographic outcomes later in life, to promote work of contemporary relevance. Connections over time, whether across generations or different segments of the life course, are an area of convergent interest among multiple disciplines. Specific topics of common interest are the influence of con- tions earlier in life on outcomes later in life, intergenerational associations in social, economic, and demographic outcomes, socioeconomic differences in health status and demographic outcomes, and the influence of industrialization and modernization on such patterns and relationships. Historical population da- bases, currently under expansion in a variety of locations around the world, provide longitudinal data on individuals across multiple generations and are especially amenable to the examination of such issues. Through a series of workshops sci- tists at the forefront of research on these issues were brought together in order to instigate a new wave of comparative work. Kinship and Demographic Behavior in the Past is intended to extend the disc- sions that occurred at two seminars, cosponsored by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, to a broader community of population scientists. Experts from many disciplines have come together in this volume to highlight the convergence of research by demographers, economic historians, historians, anth- pologists, sociologists, and geneticists.

Feature:

Studies in this volume illustrate the different ways in which kinship affects demographic behavior

A number of historical data sets from different cultural settings are used to analyze demographic processes

Compares the influence of social factors with family factors on demographic behavior

Back cover:

What is the influence of family and kinship networks on fertility, marriage, migration and mortality? Population scientists have studied the relationship between families, both immediate and extended, and demographic behavior for many years. This volume highlights the convergence of research by a group of demographers, economic historians, historians, anthropologists, sociologists and geneticists. The contributors use longitudinal databases from different cultures to study families that existed in the past and focus on the role that families and kin groups played in both early and later life events.

This book examines the role of kinship and the family’s influence on the health outcomes of their children, their children’s selection of marriage partners, couples having higher order births or reduced fertility, individual migration and origins of populations. Mortality patterns are examined to determine the influence of fertility patterns on parents’ mortality, the contribution of parents’ longevity to their children’s lifespan, and the whether a family history of disease affects the risk of dying from that same disease.

This volume emphasizes the importance of studies that include and compare other factors related to social organization with information on multi-generational families. The authors elucidate previous explanations and provide provocative new results. Such intergenerational research is crucial in understanding long term demographic trends and processes.

Contents:

Acknowledgements: Tommy Bengtsson and Geraldine P. Mineau,-Introduction: Tommy Bengtsson and Geraldine P. Mineau,- Part I: Family and kin as immediate providers of well-being for its members,- 1: Marriage and the kin network: Evidence from a 19th-century Italian community: Matteo Manfredini and Marco Breschi,- 2: Mortality in the family of origin and its effects on marriage partner selection in a Flemish village, 18th–20th centuries: Bart Van de Putte, Koen Matthijs, and Robert Vlietinck,- 3: Villages, descent groups, households, and individual outcomes in rural Liaoning, 1789–1909: Cameron Campbell and James Lee,- Part II: The importance of family and kin over the life-course,- 4: The presence of parents and childhood survival: The passage of social time and differences by social class: Frans Van Poppel and Ruben Van Gallen,- 5: When do kinsmen really help? Examination of cohort and parity-specific kin effects on fertility behavior. Case of the Bejsce parish register reconstitution study, 17–20th centuries, Poland: Krzysztof Tymicki,- 6: Places of life events as bequestable wealth. Familial territory and migration in France, 19th and 20th centuries: Lionel Kesztenbaum,- 7: Family effects on mortality in older ages, Southern Sweden, 1829–1894: Tommy Bengtsson and Göran Broström,- Part III: Kinship as a marker of genetic proximity,- 8: The influence of consanguineous marriage on reproductive behavior and early mortality in northern coastal Sweden, 1780–1899: Inez Egerbladh and Alan Bittles,- 9: Post-reproductive longevity in a natural fertility population: Alain Gagnon et al,- 10: Familial aggregation of elderly cause-specific mortality: Analysis of extended pedigrees in Utah, 1904–2002: Richard Kerber et al,- 11: Distant kinship and founder effects in the Quebec population: Marc Tremblay et al.