Preliminary Programme

The Japanese Cabinet Statistic Bureau edited the vital statistics of urban areas with more than 50,000 people from 1906 to 1942. Therefore, the infant mortality rates (IMR) are based on this vital statistic. In 1909, the infant mortality rate in Osaka City was the highest 263.6 per 1,000 birth during this period. The same year, the infant mortality rate in Japanese national average showed 167.3 per 1,000 birth, IMR of urban average was 206.0. A large number of infant mortality in Osaka City had influenced on IMR of urban average, which was higher than Japanese national average. Although infant mortality rate of Osaka City became the highest in Japan by exogenous factor, endogenous factor also was higher than national averages. Early neonatal mortality was caused by an endogenous factor. Recently it has become popular to presume status of a mother’s womb by a perinatal mortality rate. In those days perinatal mortality rate consists of stillbirth from 28weeks of pregnancy and early neonatal mortality per 1,000 birth in this period. In 1906, also the perinatal mortality rate (PMR) of Osaka city was 121.2 which was higher than PMR of national averages was 102.9. In those days migrant people had come from a rural area western part of Japan, many of them became workers. Migrant workmen supported the industrialization of Osaka, in spite of it was too difficult to form their livelihood with migrant women. Subsequently, Assurance of babies’ living is attained by raising the living standard. In Osaka, this was achieved by increasing their parents’ standard of living due to industrialization. At the same time some maternal and infant protective policies helped reduction of perinatal or infant mortalities. The infant mortality rate in Osaka City showed 157.7 in 1926. Then those reduction continued. The perinatal mortality rates in Osaka City showed 69.4 in 1926. After that those fluctuations showed leveling out. We demonstrate the causes of the perinatal mortality rate in Osaka City, and investigate why the infant mortality rate in Osaka City was higher than national averages. Then we mention how Osaka citizen reduced these mortalities rates. (Show less)

Mortality decline in early life stage has been a key topic in historical demography because this is critical in evaluating propositions of the demographic transition theory and the epidemiological transition theory: mortality decline preceded fertility decline and primary causes of death changed from infectious to chronic diseases. The current study contributes to this literature by examining the intergenerational transmission of child mortality. We are using population register data in a rural village in Korea that cover the period between 1909 and 1977. Our analysis focuses on how sibling’s death was associated with children’s death. While previous studies examined how child mortality is associated with familial socioeconomic status and kinship structure, intergenerational transmission of child mortality has not been studied extensively. However, intergenerational transmission of child mortality is important to study for the following reasons. First, family members shared some genetic factors associated with mortality risk. Hence, we can get better estimates for various factors predicting child mortality by controlling for child mortality of upper generation. Second, intergenerational transmission of child mortality is important for a child. Because this is closely related with genetic factors associated with mortality risk, we can evaluate the relative importance of genetic factors over social factors by comparing the impact of socioeconomic variables such as family structure with the intergenerational transmission. We expect that the intergenerational transmission of child mortality became weaker because mortality risk in early life stage became more independent of genetic factors as mortality decline. (Show less)

Life history theory developed within evolutionary biology to explain variation in the timing of sexual maturation, reproduction and death. The theory states that high mortality environments fasten individuals’ life trajectories: individuals adapt to local high risk environments by accelerating reproduction in order to increase the likelihood of passing on their genetic codes. Studies on contemporary populations found evidence that individuals exposed to high mortality environments, marry, cohabit and reproduce earlier and have shorter birth intervals (Nettel 2010, Quinlan 2010). A study of three different historical populations suggests that individuals accelerate their reproduction as a response to mortality experiences within the family (Störmer & Lummaa 2014). The effects of mortality on life history trajectories are strongest in early life, i.e. the first five years.
The present study focuses on the effects of extrinsic early life mortality exposure on the age at first marriage, the timing of the first birth, out of wedlock fertility, and the length of birth intervals. Extrinsic mortality is measured in two ways: (1) mortality on the municipality level, and (2) mortality on the family level. On the municipality level we utilize crude death rates, and on the family level we study the effect of the death of the mother, the father and one or more of the siblings in the first five years of the individual. We predict that individuals who were exposed to high mortality during early childhood will marry younger, start reproduction earlier, have shorter birth intervals, and will give more often birth to children out of wedlock.
The data are retrieved from the Antwerp COR* database, a demographic kin-linked micro level dataset (1846-1920) that contains information from the population registers and vital registration records (Matthijs & Moreels, 2010). In this dataset there is considerable variation across time and space in mortality, nuptiality and fertility (including out of wedlock fertility). This database allows not only to reconstruct the life course of individuals, but also that of family members, making it suitable to address our research questions. To analyze the impact of early life mortality exposure on reproductive behavior, we select individuals who were born in the district of Antwerp between 1840-1900, who had at least one sibling (birth date and possible death date had to be known), and whose father’s socioeconomic status is known. Separate event history models will be estimated for men and women.
References

Matthijs, K., & Moreels, S. (2010). The Antwerp COR*-database: A unique Flemish source for historical-demographic research. The History of the Family, 15(1), 109-115.

Nettle, D. (2010). Dying young and living fast: Variation in life history across English neighborhoods. Behavioral Ecology, 21(2), 387-395.

Störmer, C., & Lummaa, V. (2014). Increased mortality exposure within the family rather than individual mortality experiences triggers faster life-history strategies in historic human populations. PloS One, 9(1), e83633.

Quinlan, R. J. (2010). Extrinsic mortality effects on reproductive strategies in a Caribbean community. Human Nature, 21(2), 124-139. (Show less)

This paper studies sibling effects by investigating infant and child mortality in three regions in the Netherlands and two regions in Taiwan before and during the demographic transition. Although nuclear family structures were most common in the Netherlands and joint family structures were considered the ideal type of household in Taiwan, this paper not only analyses differences between, but also within, each country because of existing regional household systems. These regional household systems caused distinct variations in marriage types, inheritance practices and co-residence patterns which should be taken into account when investigating differences in sibling effects – in the sense of rivalry, support or something in between – in these communities. By using continuous longitudinal data and appropriate methods (Cox proportional hazard models) this study can take changing household composition throughout time into account. By doing so, it can overcome shortcomings of earlier studies which investigate sibling effects in historical European and Asian societies. I expect that siblings effects differ both within and between the Netherlands and Taiwan. These regional differences in siblings rivalry and support should be explained by the specific regional historical context: household structures, cultural norms and economic conditions. The preliminary results also point in this direction. (Show less)

The paper will test if a presence of a grandmother within the household had any effect on lowering of grandchildren´s infant and child mortality. Previous anthropological and historical research indicates that the effect of grandmothers may depend on various sociodemographic variables and on cultural practices as well. (Beise & Voland, 2002). Further, the effect of grandmother’s presence may vary according to their grandchildren’s sex and birth order. For instance, a child born later in the birth order may benefit from the grandmother’s presence more as its mother would need to divide her care among its sibling. But offspring can receive care also from broader residential family and other group members (Hrdy, 2009). Similarly, it will be compared the possible effect of maternal and paternal grandmothers. Should this be the case, the effects mentioned above might not be specific to grandmothers only, other family members may play a similar role compensating for the grandmother’s absence (e.g., the presence of other relatives such as aunts, older siblings etc. may have similar effects) (Sear & Mace, 2008). Further, it is not clear whether such effects are restricted to biological relatives only or whether other non-reproducing, biologically unrelated women, such as step-grandmothers, may act in a similar way. ). All these questions will be studied on data created on the family reconstruction based on excerptions from the Bohemian parish registers (18th and 19th centuries).

References:
Beise, Jan, & Voland, Eckart (2002). A multilevel event history analysis of the effects of grandmothers on child mortality in a historical German population. Demographic Research, 7(13), 469-498.
Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer (2009). Mothers and others. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sear, Rebecca, & Mace, Ruth (2008). Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29(1), 1-18. (Show less)