“Demography as history”: historical and anthropological methodological contexts (I)

Abstract

The article attempts a theoretical and methodological understanding of historical and demographic reconstructions in the context of “social history”. The parameters of the “demand” for the reconstruction of the past as a set of activities of the masses are shown. Historical experience is perceived in the context of unmotivated behavioral practices that lead to a procedural understanding of demographic trends. The principles and potential of such studies are analyzed; the humanitarian orientation of cognitive procedures is characterized. Examples of successful application of quantitative modeling in descriptions of historical processes are considered. Based on historiographical experience, the tasks of the historical-demographic approach in the study of the past are formulated. Important aspects of theorization are regional and local reconstructions as a potential for generalizations in general. “Demographic characteristics” are proposed to be evaluated both as a result and as a subject of event history. An attempt has been made to fit such studies into various historiographic contexts. The principles and mechanisms of organic/effective combination of “accurate” methods of demography with “conditions” of humanitarian knowledge in history are formulated. Possible ways of “mutual import” of techniques within the framework of the anthropological approach to the study of the past are demonstrated. Questions are raised about the limits of the application of such methods in the knowledge of the human past.