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Birth and Death

Theodore Zeldin

in France 1848–1945: Volume Two: Intellect, Taste and Anxiety

The demographic history of France is very revealing not only about the attitudes of individuals towards the most basic facts of life and the status of the family, but also about the clash between ... More

The demographic history of France is very revealing not only about the attitudes of individuals towards the most basic facts of life and the status of the family, but also about the clash between their interests and the nationalist aspirations of the politicians. This conflict and the contrast between the ambitions of different sections of the community, and the way they could ignore each other, makes the problems of population much more than an exercise in statistics. The reasons why Frenchmen had small families but also deplored them are worth investigating. This chapter shows that the relationship between attitudes to death and behaviour in life, if it is ever worked out with greater precision, is unlikely to be a simple one, which can be stated by reference to a single, or even a few, social variables. It suggests, as do also the statistics on population and family, that several fundamentally opposed forms of behaviour coexisted. France was not all one in the way it tackled birth, death, or anything else.Less

Introduction: Contested Worldviews and a Demographic Revolution

Fabian Drixler

in Mabiki: Infanticide and Population Growth in Eastern Japan, 1660-1950

This introductory chapter presents an overview of the main themes covered in this book, which traces the persistence and eventual demise of Eastern Japan’s culture of infanticide. In the eighteenth ... More

This introductory chapter presents an overview of the main themes covered in this book, which traces the persistence and eventual demise of Eastern Japan’s culture of infanticide. In the eighteenth century, the prevalence of infanticide meant that fewer children were raised and each generation was smaller than the one before it. By 1850, however, a typical couple in the same region raised four or five children; by the 1920s the average woman had six children. The reverse fertility transition in Eastern Japan confounds the assumption that fertility only changes from high to low.Less

Molecular Population Genetics

Daniel L. Hartl

in A Primer of Population Genetics and Genomics

Chapter 7 is an introduction to molecular population genetics that includes the principal concepts of nucleotide polymorphism and divergence, the site frequency spectrum, and tests of selection and ... More

Chapter 7 is an introduction to molecular population genetics that includes the principal concepts of nucleotide polymorphism and divergence, the site frequency spectrum, and tests of selection and their limitations. Highlighted are rates of nucleotide substitution in coding and noncoding DNA, nucleotide and amino acid divergence between species, corrections for multiple substitutions, and the molecular clock. Discussion of the folded and unfolded site frequency spectrum includes the strengths and limitations of Tajima’s D, Fay and Wu’s H, and other measures. The chapter also discusses an emerging consensus to resolve the celebrated selection–neutrality controversy. It also includes examination of demographic history through the use of ancient DNA with special emphasis on the surprising findings in regard to the ancestral makeup of contemporary human populations. Also discussed are the population dynamics of transposable elements in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.Less

The China Trajectory

Jay Winter and Michael Teitelbaum

in The Global Spread of Fertility Decline: Population, Fear, and Uncertainty

This chapter explores the political dimension of the modern demographic history of China, which is one of its essential characteristics. Modernization theory has little purchase here, since it ... More

This chapter explores the political dimension of the modern demographic history of China, which is one of its essential characteristics. Modernization theory has little purchase here, since it focused on a model derived from the western European transformation of rural, agrarian societies to urban, manufacturing ones. Chinese demographic history is not simply an echo of Western patterns. Fertility decline in China happened in both the cities and in the countryside, and with the state as its guiding force. Beck's concept of “risk” must be translated differently in China, in which the boundaries between “private” and “community” spheres differ notably from those in the West. For centuries, interventions in reproductive behavior that many Westerners might have considered authoritarian and intrusive have prevailed in the family decisions of Chinese couples.Less

Migration and return, 1958–1971

in Demography, State and Society: Irish Migration to Britain, 1921–1971

This chapter investigates the implications of a policy for migration from Ireland in the 1960s, at which time the international economy had a favourable impact on the Irish economy. The period in ... More

This chapter investigates the implications of a policy for migration from Ireland in the 1960s, at which time the international economy had a favourable impact on the Irish economy. The period in Irish population history from 1958 until the early 1970s has been regarded as a ‘demographic transformation’. The data note that those who attained a higher level of education displayed more challenging income and occupational aspirations, which could be met by leaving the local community and the country. There was a reduction of the total number of Protestants in the Irish Republic. Irish ethnic identity was closely linked with the Roman Catholic church. The 1960s revealed a decrease in the number of people migrating to Britain. By the early 1970s, a significant return migrant flow was apparent, which was a novel development in modern Irish demographic history.Less

Conclusion

Fabian Drixler

in Mabiki: Infanticide and Population Growth in Eastern Japan, 1660-1950

This chapter presents some final thoughts from the author. Topics discussed include how social context influenced the reproductive culture in Japan; Eastern Japan in world demographic history; and ... More

This chapter presents some final thoughts from the author. Topics discussed include how social context influenced the reproductive culture in Japan; Eastern Japan in world demographic history; and the relationship between fertility and modernity.Less

Interpreting the Evidence

Linda A. Newson

in Conquest and Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines

This chapter examines the evidence that can shed light on the demographic impact of Spanish colonial rule on the Philippines and allow comparisons between population trends in the islands with other ... More

This chapter examines the evidence that can shed light on the demographic impact of Spanish colonial rule on the Philippines and allow comparisons between population trends in the islands with other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago. Focusing on demographic trends for each major island and region in Luzon and the Visayas, the chapter shows that Spanish conquest and early colonial rule in the Philippines resulted in significant population decline that was more pervasive and prolonged than generally assumed, but varied regionally. The evidence includes early Spanish colonial sources such as letters and memorials written by the first explorers, conquistadors, and priests; civil records like fiscal accounts and censuses; ecclesiastical records; and corroborative evidence derived from records of native traditions and from archaeology. The chapter also discusses some of the problems associated with the use of early Spanish colonial sources for demographic analysis and the role of racial mixing in population losses. Finally, it considers a regional approach for evaluating the early demographic history of the Spanish Philippines.Less

Interior Luzon

Linda A. Newson

in Conquest and Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines

This chapter examines the impact of Spanish colonial rule on the population of interior Luzon, with particular emphasis on groups living within the southern and central Cordillera. It begins with a ... More

This chapter examines the impact of Spanish colonial rule on the population of interior Luzon, with particular emphasis on groups living within the southern and central Cordillera. It begins with a brief review of the incidence and timing of Spanish contacts in the southern and central Cordillera, including the regions of Ituy and Paniqui, Italon and Abaca, and Igorot territory. It then considers the demographic history of the Igorot in Benguet, Kankanai and Bontoc, and Ifugao. It also discusses Dominican missionary efforts in northern Cordillera, along with demographic trends in the entire Cordillera region. It cites population estimates for interior Luzon for the period 1570–1800 and suggests that the region experienced an overall population decline of approximately 36 percent in 1570.Less

Conservation genetics of red pandas in the wild

Yibo Hu, Dunwu Qi, and Fuwen Wei

in Biology and Conservation of Musteloids

The red panda is listed on the 2016 IUCN red list as Endangered. It is now distributed only in China, Myanmar, India, Bhutan and Nepal. Human activities such as poaching and large-scale deforestation ... More

The red panda is listed on the 2016 IUCN red list as Endangered. It is now distributed only in China, Myanmar, India, Bhutan and Nepal. Human activities such as poaching and large-scale deforestation have caused serious declines in this forest-dwelling species. Although its ecological research has made much progress in the past decades, only recently witnessed the population genetic research advances of this species. This chapter reviews the advances in wild red panda conservation genetics from non-invasive genetics, genetic diversity, phylogeographic structure, population genetic structure, demographic history, subspecies differentiation, to its conservation and management. It presents detailed estimates of genetic diversity, assesses the role of paleo-climate changes, human activities and landscape features in shaping the genetic structure and demographic history of red pandas, and discusses the implications of conservation genetics findings for effective genetic monitoring and conservation management.Less

The ‘Great Migration’ of the Serbs from Kosovo (1690): History, Myth and Ideology

Noel Malcolm

in Rebels, Believers, Survivors: Studies in the History of the Albanians

This essay examines both the historical facts concerning the migration of Serbs from Kosovo in 1690, and the claims made about that migration by subsequent historians—claims which, at their most ... More

This essay examines both the historical facts concerning the migration of Serbs from Kosovo in 1690, and the claims made about that migration by subsequent historians—claims which, at their most extreme, suggested that hundreds of thousands of Serbs departed, with huge effects on the ethnic composition of the region. This essay demonstrates that there was no large-scale organized exodus of Serbs under the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch, Arsenije Crnojević: his departure from Kosovo in early 1690 was extremely hasty, and he had not, in any case, been leading organized resistance to the Ottomans. A large number of Serbs did move with the Patriarch to Hungarian territory later in that year; he himself gave their numbers as 30,000 or 40,000. But they had gathered, from many areas, in the Belgrade region, and only a small proportion were from Kosovo itself. One unsupported claim was made many years later, by a Serbian monk, that the Patriarch had brought 37,000 families to Hungary; and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many Serb writers interpreted that figure maximally, while also assuming that all those people had come from Kosovo. This essay analyses the ideological influences (operating primarily on Serbs within the Habsburg territories in the nineteenth century) that helped to shape that interpretation; it also criticizes excessive claims made by modern Albanian and Turkish historians.Less