The influence of popular beliefs about childbirth on fertility patterns in mid-twentieth-century Netherlands
Titelübersetzung:Der Volksglauben über Geburten als Einflussfaktor auf Fruchtbarkeitsmuster in den Niederlanden Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts
Autor/in:
Bras, Hilde
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 39 (2014) 1, S 76-103
Inhalt: "Ever since the Princeton European Fertility Project on the decline of fertility, the question of how (changes in) cultural beliefs have influenced the historical fertility transition has been in the forefront of historical demographic research. Previous research has however mostly assessed the influence of religious denomination and has not examined the impact of wider beliefs or 'cultural life scripts'. On the basis of a folklore questionnaire, this article examines the occurrence, content, and geographical patterning of popular beliefs about childbearing in relation to fertility patterns in 1.022 rural Dutch communities during the nineteen forties. Beliefs in isolation and churching of women existed in almost half of all communities, particularly among Catholic populations, while fear of enchantment of infants was still alive in about a fifth of all municipalities. To be sure, such popular beliefs were rapidly vanishing and remnants were still found in isolated and strongly religious areas. A multivariate analysis shows that in communities where beliefs in churching and witchcraft still existed, birth rates were significantly higher. The study shows the salience of including popular beliefs in studies of fertility behavior and fertility decline. Moreover, it extends the concept of cultural life scripts beyond that of age norms to include prescriptions on social contexts, conducts, and practices surrounding important life passages." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:20. Jahrhundert; Netherlands; Geburtenrückgang; fertility; Katholik; birth; reproductive behavior; determinants; kulturelle Faktoren; declining birth rate; faith; Fruchtbarkeit; Glaube; cultural factors; Roman Catholic; generatives Verhalten; Ritual; Aberglaube; ritual; woman; Geburt; superstition; Religion; religion; gender-specific factors; Determinanten; twentieth century; Niederlande; cultural life script; popular beliefs
SSOAR Kategorie:Religionssoziologie, Sozialgeschichte, historische Sozialforschung, Bevölkerung
Life scripts and life realities: women in nineteenth-century Nijmegen
Titelübersetzung:Lebensskript und Lebenswirklichkeit: Frauen im Nimwegen des 19. Jahrhunderts
Autor/in:
Engelen, Theo
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 39 (2014) 1, S 104-112
Inhalt: "On average, more than one fifth of the 19th century Nijmegen brides were pregnant at the date of marriage. In a society where extramarital sexuality was explicitly forbidden, and where the success of marriage restriction depended on following that rule, this finding is remarkable. Obviously, the cultural life script that allowed sexuality only within marriage was not a script all inhabitants lived up to. A remarkable secondary finding is that the protestant population had a much higher proportion of bridal pregnancies than the Roman Catholic population, although both the Protestant and the Roman Catholic clergy strongly opposed sexual activities, unless within marriage. Therefore, when bridal pregnancy among Protestant couples was twice as high as among Catholics, this points either at a stricter control by the Catholic clergy, or at more deviance among Protestant youngsters. In any case, when studying cultural life scripts on sexuality, it is always important to note that it can be countered by human agency." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Netherlands; 19. Jahrhundert; Protestant; Ehe; cultural factors; marriage; Roman Catholic; Katholik; Schwangerschaft; kulturelle Faktoren; sexuality; pregnancy; Protestant; Sexualität; woman; Lebensbedingungen; living conditions; nineteenth century; Niederlande; cultural life script; bridal pregnancy; extramarital sexuality
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sozialgeschichte, historische Sozialforschung, Bevölkerung
Titelübersetzung:Geburtenpolitik in Deutschland, 1912-1945: Diskurse, Politik und Praxis
Autor/in:
Usborne, Cornelie
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 36 (2011) 2, S 140-161
Inhalt: "This article compares the responses to the declining birthrate by three very different regimes in Wilhelmine, Weimar and Nazi Germany. In their intent these policies were markedly different: just before and during the First World War a declining birthrate symbolized national decline, sapping national progress and military power and the central aim was to boost fertility almost at any price; eugenics was not yet a major influence on official Wilhelmine policy. In the wake of the devastation reaped by the lost war and also influenced by the depression at the end of the 1920s the democratically elected governments of the Weimar Republic attempted to 'rationalize' reproduction to suit the prevailing socio-economic circumstances and the belief in modernity in industry and everyday life. They favored 'fewer but better children' but their policies remained fragmented and heavily contested; lawmakers tried to balance individual rights and collective interests, welfarism and eugenic concerns. In contrast, Nazi leaders developed a comprehensive and sophisticated system of selective reproduction based on racial prejudice; legal safeguards to protect the rights of individuals were ruthlessly dismantled. Material and ideological inducements to boost the birthrate benefited only 'Aryans' and healthy Germans. A series of extremely repressive measures were introduced: on the one hand they were meant to curb the breeding of the 'unfit', like Jews, gypsies, or those considered congenitally diseased and, on the other, they aimed to curb individual birth control by those deemed 'fit'. But of course the picture is more complicated. If we compare official population programs with their implementation at the local level and also with the reproductive strategies employed by ordinary women and men, a more subtle picture emerges about the regimes which is marked by both fundamental changes but also striking continuities." (author's abstract)
Titelübersetzung:Individualisierung und Fertilität
Autor/in:
Ehrhardt, Jens; Kohli, Martin
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 36 (2011) 2, S 35-64
Inhalt: "In this paper, the authors discuss individualization theory as a parsimonious framework concept to describe and explain core points of fertility change in Western societies since the end of the 19th century. They emphasize two dimensions of individualization: firstly, the increase in status of the individual in cultural, social, economic and legal respects (human dignity); secondly, the increase in autonomy and freedom of choice. In contrast to other approaches based on individualization theory, the authors do not use the concept of self-realization in the sense of an increased orientation towards purely individual interests, not least because this concept has failed before the renewed rise in fertility that has recently been observed in some advanced societies. They discuss the relevance of these two dimensions of individualization in the context of the first transition and the 1960s with its declining fertility rates. Whereas the first demographic transition can be mainly explained by the rising status of children, which increased the costs of parenting and thus changed the interests of (potential) parents to have children, the transition in the 1960s resulted mainly from the rising status of women in education and the labor market. An important but hitherto neglected change was the increasing divorce rates, as the possibility to dissolve a marriage devalued the traditional gender contract of the breadwinner/ housewife model and decreased the willingness of women and men to invest in marriage and children. The contrast between the recently growing fertility rates in Sweden, France and the US with the continuously low fertility in the German-speaking countries can partly be seen as a result of different divorce regimes. Whereas the first group of countries has limited the entitlement to spousal support through alimonies, the second group has institutionalized extensive entitlements for mothers." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Fruchtbarkeit; fertility; demographischer Übergang; demographic transition; historische Entwicklung; historical development; Individualisierung; individualization; Federal Republic of Germany; internationaler Vergleich; international comparison; Ehescheidung; divorce; Theorie; theory; westliche Welt; Western world; 19. Jahrhundert; nineteenth century; 20. Jahrhundert; twentieth century; Geburtenrückgang; declining birth rate; Bevölkerungsentwicklung; population development; woman; Bildung; education; Arbeitsmarkt; labor market; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Schweden; Sweden; Frankreich; France; USA; United States of America; Nordamerika; North America
SSOAR Kategorie:Sozialgeschichte, historische Sozialforschung, Bevölkerung
Who had an occupation? Changing boundaries in historical U.S. census data
Titelübersetzung:Bei welchen Personen ist der Beruf bekannt? Wandelnde Kategoriengrenzen in der amerikanischen Volkszählung
Autor/in:
Meyer, Peter B.
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 34 (2009) 3, S 149-167
Inhalt: 'Das ursprüngliche Ziel der U.S.-amerikanischen Volkszählung war, Informationen zu erheben, die die Abgrenzung von Stimmbezirken von ungefähr gleicher Bevölkerungsgröße ermöglichten. Heute werden die Zensusdaten immer häufiger in der Forschung sekundäranalytisch genutzt, z.B. für die Arbeits- und Berufsforschung. Der Autor geht daher der Frage nach, wie die Kategorie 'Beruf' sich im Lauf der Geschichte der amerikanischen Volkszählung gewandelt hat und erörtert methodologische Probleme, die entstehen, wenn man mit Hilfe dieser Daten den historischen Wandel der amerikanischen Erwerbsbevölkerung untersucht. Der Autor zeigt, dass Begriffe, Erhebungspraktiken und der historische Kontext einen starken Einfluss darauf haben, welche und wie viele Personen einer Berufsgruppe zugeordnet wurden. Dies betrifft insbesondere bestimmte Personengruppen, etwa verheiratete Frauen, Indianer, Jugendliche und Personen, die aufgehört haben, gegen Bezahlung zu arbeiten.' (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: 'The original official purpose of the U.S. Census was to gather information to design political districts of approximately the same size. Increasingly Census data has been used for descriptive and social scientific purposes. This paper examines how the category of 'occupation' has changed and looks at several issues which arise in comparing the present day workforce with the workforce in past decades. Changes in concepts, practices, and historical context have greatly affected how many persons were recorded as having occupations, especially for married women, American Indians, teenagers, and people who have ceased paid work.' (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Sklave; 20. Jahrhundert; Datengewinnung; historische Entwicklung; Mikrozensus; process-produced data; North America; Student; student; prozessproduzierte Daten; measurement; Jugendlicher; Kind; historical development; slave; Nordamerika; influence; social data; indigene Völker; Volkszählung; labor force; Messung; standardization (meth.); Erwerbsbevölkerung; unemployment; United States of America; indigenous peoples; Berufsgruppe; 19. Jahrhundert; microcensus; adolescent; Sozialdaten; Arbeitslosigkeit; census; USA; woman; Einfluss; child; occupational group; data capture; Standardisierung; twentieth century; nineteenth century
SSOAR Kategorie:Forschungsarten der Sozialforschung, Erhebungstechniken und Analysetechniken der Sozialwissenschaften, Sozialgeschichte, historische Sozialforschung, Bevölkerung
Der Wunsch nach Homogenität: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer schweizerischen Bevölkerungspolitik in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts
Titelübersetzung:The desire for homogeneity: possibilities and limits of a Swiss population policy in the first half of the twentieth century
Autor/in:
Kury, Patrick
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 31 (2006) 4, S 263-281
Inhalt: 'Bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg betrieben in der Schweiz Kantone und Gemeinden Bevölkerungspolitik. Erst mit dem Ersten Weltkrieg begannen auch bundesstaatliche Stellen sich vermehrt für bevölkerungspolitische und -wissenschaftliche Fragen zu interessieren. Die während des Ersten Weltkriegs geschaffene Fremdenpolizei versuchte, mit einer möglichst zurückhaltenden Niederlassung- und Einbürgerungspolitik und -praxis die Zusammensetzung der in der Schweiz lebenden Bevölkerung zu steuern und so genannte 'unerwünschte' Ausländerinnen und Ausländern fern zu halten. Diese Haltung, die sich stark gegen jüdische Immigranten richtete, war geprägt vom damals vorherrschenden Überfremdungsdiskurs. Die Behördenvertreter orientierten sich an einer engen Abstammungslehre und nahmen dabei insbesondere die Diskriminierung der Frauen in Kauf. Gleichzeitig traten private Organisationen und einige Kantone für sozialpolitische Maßnahmen ein, die das Ziel hatten, die Geburtenrate zu steigern. So entwickelte sich in der Zwischenkriegszeit ein schweizerischer bevölkerungswissenschaftlicher Diskurs, der sich durch eine nach außen gerichtete Abwehr und einer zunehmenden Diskriminierung der Frauen auszeichnete.' (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: 'The paper analyses the beginning of a Swiss population policy at the intersection of federal, cantonal and non-governmental interests in the twenties and thirties. During World War One, the Federal Council founded the Swiss Foreign Police, a special police unit which formed part of the immigration office. This new police unit was the first federal institution which followed a population policy. In the case of immigration and naturalisation the authorities brought to life a strict population-control. Their point of view was influenced by the discourse about the threat of foreigners ('Überfremdung'), the catchphrase during the decade after World War One. While they were trying to exclude the 'unwanted people' they also encouraged the discrimination of women. At the same time several private associations and some cantons demanded a social policy for families with the aim to raise the birth rate. Because the Swiss federalism was also very strong between the World Wars a population policy under Helvetic conditions there was developing: Exclusion against outside, discrimination of women inside.' (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:20. Jahrhundert; Switzerland; discrimination; naturalization; Zwischenkriegszeit; antisemitism; alien; Bevölkerungspolitik; Einbürgerung; Diskurs; discourse; Ausländer; Diskriminierung; Erster Weltkrieg; population policy; woman; peace time; Antisemitismus; Schweiz; First World War; twentieth century
Servants in preindustrial Europe: gender differences
Titelübersetzung:Diener im vorindustriellen Europa: Geschlechterdifferenzen
Autor/in:
Fauve-Chamoux, Antoinette
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 23 (1998) 1/2, S 112-129
Inhalt: Die spezifische Arbeit und die Mobilität männlicher wie weiblicher Dienerschaft hängen eng mit dem sozioökonomischen Übergang und der Urbanisierung der vorindustriellen europäischen Gesellschaften zusammen. Hausdienst wird als Parameter des europäischen Familienmodells eingeführt. Der Arbeitsmarkt für Diener und Lehrlinge, die fern ihrer Heimat arbeiteten, wird bis 1597 zurückverfolgt. Anhand von Tabellen werden die Anzahl und das Lebensalter ländlicher und städtischer Hausdienerschaft in verschiedenen französischen Gemeinden miteinander verglichen. Auch das Aufkommen einer Dienerschaft im fortgeschrittenen Lebensalter wird erwähnt. Anhand von Tabellen verschiedener europäischer Staaten im 18. und beginnenden 19. Jahrhundert und besonders am Fallbeispiel der französischen Stadt Rheims werden u.a. die ländlichen Ursprünge der städtischen Dienerschaft und die Mobilität von weiblichen Hausangestellten nachgewiesen. Der Arbeitsmarkt für männliche und weibliche Dienerschaft entwickelte sich stetig vom 18. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert hinein, wenn auch für Frauen mehr als für Männer. (prf)
Inhalt: 'The specific mobility and type of work of servants of both sexes were indeed a major feature in the delineation of building up European societies. Domestic service was the main way to elect for young rurals wanting to migrate towards small and big towns, since they could consider service as a transitory phase, giving them an opportunity to adapt themselves to a new way of life before marriage. From that point of view, domestic service contributed greatly to social change: a great number of young males and females turned their backs to traditional family and village life to the prospect of better ways of life in urban surroundings for a change, but were only able to find immediate employment as servants in these preindustrial eras. The prevalence of domestic service for young people is put in evidence, studying gender differences according to age groups. We might say that large towns counted more than 10 women out of 100 in a position of servants at a master's home at the end of the 17th century, and usually less than 10% of men in the same position. This rate increased steadily for all European towns as a consequence of massive rural exodus and of the opportunities offered on the overall female job markets, particularly on the domestic service market.' (author's abstract)