Volume VI, Issue 1, 2012
Abstract
In this paper I will deal with the first results of quantitative analysis proceeded in the framework of the Graz Austrian Fertility Project (further GAFP) in terms of migration. Therefore I will employ migration data from the 1869 census on the level of political district and map them in a GIS(geographical information system). GAFP focuses primarily on the provinces of Carniola, Istria, Gorizia and Gradisca, Trieste, Carinthia, Styria and Lower Austria. The paper analyses the proportion of migrants in the present population of each political district in the above named provinces and asks for possible explanations for the featured differences. Due to the texture of the available source data I give attention to in-migration levels in order to identify those areas which were most attractive to migrants. The resulting pattern basically mirrors the existence of a Hajnal-line in terms of migration behaviour and opens the space for further reflections. As GAFP has produced a large database of all census contents which relate to the level of political district, correlations can be examined not only between migration and other demographic key parameters such as mortality, fertility, and nuptiality, but also with so-called structure data: employment, religion, language of use, education (levels of illiteracy) etc. Nevertheless it is necessary to raise awareness toward the limitations of the source material used: The cultural and linguistic borderline turns out quite likely to be a watershed between different migration systems.
Keywords
Habsburg, migration, Hajnal, quantitative analysis, census, Austria-Hungary, Austria, Cisleithania, mobility
Abstract
The period 1881-1913 in the Czech lands was characterized by the First Demographic Transition. Data from this period exist for the numbers of births, marriages and deaths in Cisleithania on the level of political districts and statutory towns/cities; this data forms the basis of the present study. The authors calculated the crude birth, marriage and death rates for the population of the political districts and statutory towns/cities of Austrian Silesia and north-eastern Moravia. The chosen territory represents the wider industrial area of the Ostrava-Karviná (Frytát) coalfield. The authors compared the crude rates and attempted to explain local differences with regard to economic, social and cultural factors.
Keywords
Historical demography, First Demographic Transition, natural reproduction, birth rate, death rate, marriage rate, natural increase, Ostrava, Silesia, Moravia
Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the level of modernization and the most important demographic indicators of religions. Correlation analyses, which helped us to draw the conclusion, were produced by Statistica for Windows. Our study is based on statistical publications on national level. Hungary was one of the most diversified countries in terms of religions before World War I. Croatia was different from Hungary in terms of religious diversity, as the majority of its population was Roman Catholic and 25% Orthodox. First, we examine the relationship between religion and mother tongue. Then we analyse the demographic indicators of each religion. What immediately attracts our attention is the great difference in all indicators, like crude birth, death, natural increase and marriage rates. But more sophisticated indicators behave in similar manner. There was considerable difference in fertility, in rate of infant and child mortality. In addition, seasonality of marriages, marital age and the rates of religiously mixed marriages vary greatly from denomination to denomination. Moreover, there was considerable difference in the demographic indicators of the same religions between Hungary and Croatia. However, following this study it will be important to have a micro level investigation, as well.
Keywords
Denomination, interfaith and interethnic marriages, age at marriage, crude birth and death rate, infant mortality, fertility, level of modernization
Abstract
Although in the second half of the nineteenth century, Metropolitan Andrei Şaguna clearly expressed his point of view according to which the state must only deal with the “physical form of marriage, while the moral and spiritual aspect could not belong indubitably to anyone but the church”, the secular offensive of the Dualist State continued to be more than obvious. Consequent to the passing of legislation in this case, the Law no. XXXI of 1894, which confiscated the exclusive right of the church to celebrate marriage, the Orthodox ecclesiastical circles environment intensified the efforts to enhance the accuracy of statistics on the number of marriages per year, their type, on concubinages, on the number of illegitimate children. Through the data obtained, the Church sought to evaluate weather or not the new State legislation had a major impact on religious marriage, which it did not, the number of civil marriages is very small compared to religious marriages.
Emphasis must also be made for the following reason: the Orthodox Church did not recognize civil marriages, unless it was followed by religious marriage, children born in a civil marriage were likely to be considered illegitimate and the parents treated as if they lived in concubinage. Due to this, the ecclesiastical bodies argued, fact revealed in many circulars that, despite material or family difficulties, by granting exemptions or tax cuts, marriages should also have the endorsement of the Church.
The situation of illegitimate children was very complicated, upon them their parents mistake transposed more drastically, before a traditional society, still unprepared to understand the individual’s own reasons in entering a marriage, other than the reasons of the family he left, or the reasons of the rural community in general. Their only chance came from the outside, and it implied was the legalization of the parents relationship, which was easier in the case of cohabitation, but more difficult for parents accused of adultery. Even in such cases concluded happily, parish registers for baptisms or for marriages, even if they become documents for internal use, did not forget to mention, especially in the case of baptism, the “nature “of it.
Concubinages were regarded as the most important reason for the existence of illegitimate children. The Orthodox Church, thus, tried to act in a much broader context, by eradicating the causes that led to such unfortunate situations. In turn, the State tried, through legislation, regarded by the Church as parallel and secularizing, to clarify on a mostly judicial level the situation of these children, to clarify the rights they could eventually enjoy through the recognition in state courts. Ecclesiastical bodies have not been able to circumvent the major role assumed by the priest in the parish community, namely the moral role in building and developing the community. Neither can be exclude the moral support, which the priest was obliged to offer to those who, for themselves or their children, chose to return and wait to be accepted back into the community, if not them, at least their descendants.
Keywords
Orthodox Church, Romanian nation, marriage, concubinages, illegitimate children, society, rural background, women, State legislation, family, Transylvania
Abstract
During the second half of the 19th century Romanian communities in Transylvania adopted the same demographic regime which was specific to Eastern and South-Eastern European regions. These particular demographic practices were mainly influenced by customary law provisions observed in the area. Social and economic conditions led to the multiplication of certain atypical marital practices such as consanguineous marriages, as revealed by archive documents called “marriage licences”. The current study aims at analysing the way in which these consanguineous marriages produced specific behaviour and mentalities. After examining the above mentioned archive documents, from a quantitative and comparative point of view, one can draw a few very interesting conclusions. In this period, in comparison with Romanian Orthodox communities from Transylvania, Greek-Catholics developed and preserved a specific demographic behaviour and mentality in what matrimonial problems in general were concerned. The same attitudes were noticed in what consanguineous matrimonies, as a particular matter, are concerned. This meant a more rigorous respect of ecclesiastical canons and a more peremptory attitude towards deviance from norms. From this point of view, consanguineous marriages were the most frequent exception from the rule. Nonetheless, they were tolerated on account of the system of inheritance.
Keywords
Marriage, consanguinity, marriage licences, inheritance, property rights, system of inheritance.
Abstract
Life expectancy at birth or middle age was tightly connected to mortality structure. Major mortality crises in certain years greatly reduced life expectancy in the area. High mortality rate influencing all age groups led to a considerable decrease of average age. From the point of view of life expectancy in the whole region, there was a genuine positive revolution. Mortality rate in the region as well as in Transylvania and Hungary greatly decreased, thus leading to the demographic pattern specific in Central and Western Europe at the time. The number of children dying before reaching the age of 1 and infantile mortality together with the high mortality rate at children aged 1 to 5 show that young age group was dominant in mortality analysis. Children were the most exposed to pressure of internal and external factors leading to death. Children were the most vulnerable in front of death claws in all seasons and all communities. It was a reality in all Transylvania.
In spite of obvious developments as compared to 1860-1880, in 1910, there still was a high mortality rate amongst children. In Bihor, the percentage of deceased children under 5 out of the total number of children was 34.2%, and of those under 7 was 36.3%. In the Sătmar County, mortality amongst children was even higher, which has been proved by the great number of deceased children in Ghenci: out of the total number of children, 36.3% were children deceased before reaching 5, while 38.4% were under 7 in 1910. In 1900-1910, the average number of newborns was 17,547 in Bihor and 9,655 in Sătmar. In the same period, the annual average of deceased children in Bihor was 4,094 and in Sătmar was 2,198. From the average of deceased children under 1 and the average number of newborns in 1900-1910, the average infantile mortality rate was 232.95 in Bihor and 227.65 in Sătmar. Thus, there was a very high infantile mortality rate in the two counties. It was above the rate in Transylvania, where average infantile mortality rate was 206.24. Despite the high infantile mortality rate, there were counties where infantile mortality rate index was even higher; for instance, in Arad infantile mortality rate was 245.56. In the two county seats, average infantile
mortality rate for 1900-1910 was lower as compared to the whole of the counties. In Oradea, infantile mortality rate was 213.25 and in Satu Mare it was 219.98.
This was a world where many were born and many died. Children were the most exposed to social, economic and meteorological hardships. Throughout the second half of the 19 th century and at the beginning of the 20 th century, there was a high infantile mortality rate. Moreover, as seen in the Principality of Transylvania, infantile mortality rate was even increasing in some regions. There were several complex causes of high infantile mortality. They originated in the precarious living conditions, lack of, or inappropriate, food, lack of hygiene and qualified medical staff, inappropriate housing for newborns, lack of special care for small children; last but not least, the attempt of applying traditional adult medical treatment to children, etc. As parish registers show, many children died at birth or immediately after. The lack of qualified and specialised midwives to assist the mother in childbirth to provide some medical assistance to the child was another important cause of infantile mortality. Last but not least, the high infantile mortality originated in a harmful collective mentality of the people concerning physicians and sanitary system
Keywords
Vulnerability, life expectancy, mortality rate, infantile mortality, death crisis
Abstract
At the beginning of the 19 th Century, Bucureşti was a city in which modernity met old cultural traditions. Everyday life was shaken by several convulsions, each with an impact upon the demographic situation: the war of 1806-1812, the economic crisis of 1810-1812 and one of the worst epidemics, Carageas plague (1813-1814).
In these conditions, the health of children in Bucureşti was often in danger a fact noted by contemporary observers. Among these observers, a most remarkable personality was the physician Constantin Caracaş, author of the Topography of Wallachia. Caracaş estimated that the child mortality was very high. Using the work of Caracaş and other documents, we analyze this claim, relying on qualitative data, because quantitative data are missing.
Bucureşti was a city with stark social contrasts between elites and ordinary or even marginalized city dwellers. Elite children had better opportunities. The children of ordinary town dwellers were subjected to more risks: at birth, because of ignorant midwives and later because of the life in small houses and bad food. The children of nannies, prostitutes, the abandoned infants faced even greater risks.
The destiny of the children from Bucureşti, at the beginning of the 19 th Century, had the mark of social and economic gaps. During infancy, it was also under the sign of the traditionalism and ignorance of their parents.
There were, however, elements of convergence in the destiny of both groups. They had their roots in the traditionalism of uneducated mothers from the elite. Thus infant mortality was as pressing a problem for elite families as it was for ordinary families.
Famine and plague deepened the gap between the dwellers. Among the children of ordinary dwellers, the impact of the economic crisis and of one of the most terrible plague epidemics certainly took a higher toll. The elites prevented access to their families or sent them far away, while ordinary people had to stay in the town. The sources have no special rubrics for children, but we meet them where the disease strikes: on the streets, in hospitals, among the dead. The government sees them as a vehicle of the epidemic. No special protection is mentioned for the children. There were thousands of victims. No one knows how many were children. Their number had to be high because of their exposure to unhealthy persons and their fragility.
The analysis of the available data, the mentalities and the historical circumstances leads to the conclusion that doctor Caracaşs claim is plausible.
Keywords
Romania, Bucureşti, 19 th Century, Child mortality, plague, Caragea.
Abstract
After the First World War multiple and dramatic social-demographic events affected the population of the World. In Transylvania the Orthodox Church and the Greek-Catholic Church, both traditionally Romanian Churches competed with each other even when dealing with serious problems such as caring for the victims of war. In the pages of their press both Churches addressed the issue of war orphans, war widows and war disabled, trying to emphasize charity and Christian love asking for donations and financial aid for their orphanages, but also criticizing authorities for abuses and asking for better laws. Both Churches proved to be important institutions during the inter-war period for the sheltering and protection of those in need.
Keywords
Orphan, widow, disabled, war, Greek-Catholic, Orthodox, Church, orphanages, press, Christmas
Abstract
The present study summarizes the results of a set of exploratory research with the aim to reveal, both theoretically and empirically, the intergenerational exchanges within the Romanian family and the connections between social capital and volunteering, both understood as phenomena which are intermediated by the extended family and kinship relations. Drawing on the results of our previous empirical findings and using the theoretical background of intergenerational and family studies, the conceptual framework of the article builds on two hypotheses: 1) the role of the vicious circle of social capital and 2) the role of the virtuous circle of social capital in mediating volunteering and involvement in connections with the bonding social capital assumptions. In this sense, in the study we are focused on the role of intergenerational solidarity in kinship and other informal social networks (friends, neighbors, community) in orienting people towards several forms of participation, social engagement and volunteering. The researchers made use of a qualitative and quantitative methods mix, in which qualitative analysis prevailed.
Keywords
Informal social capital, intergenerational support/exchanges, participation, trust, solidarity, virtuous/vicious circle of informal social capital, kinship, community, volunteering.