Fertility in the Vlachic population of Greece: a demo-anthropological approach of Metsovo, 1930-1999 with the application of a genealogy based method of analysis

Abstract

Fertility trends in the Vlachic population of Metsovo (District of Epirus, Department of Ioannina) for years 1930-1999 were studied. Through time, Total Fertility Rates of the population and its spatial/occupational groups diminished from more than 4 children per woman in the 1930s to around 1.2 in 1995-1999. Similar trends were observed for the cohort fertility. The mechanism of this transition is connected with the gradual and voluntary limitation of fertility through the appliance of stopping behaviors and with the parallel decrease of the average age at childbearing. ertility levels in Metsovo maintain over time a dynamic character imposed by the changing local structures, which, in their turn, are part of broader national and hyper-national ones. Konstantinos N. ZAFEIRIS , Lecturer of Demography, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of History and Ethnology, Laboratory of Anthropology, Komotini, Greece. E-mail: kzafiris@he.duth.gr . Katerina HATZISAVVA , Researcher at the Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace. Currently: Center of Greek Language, Thessaloniki, Greece. E-mail: chatzi@komvos.edu.gr . Nikolaos I. XIROTIRIS, Professor of Anthropology (retired). Former Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. E-mail: xirotiris@gmail.com .