Nineteenth-century Sweden Research Articles

Biometric Modeling n the Study of Infant Mortality: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Sweden

In this study we investigate a well-known biometric model of infant mortality that has been used both to distinguish major causes of mortality before 1 year of age and to examine historical data to identify possible underregistration of infant mortality particularly that which occurred shortly after birth. We show that arguments for the under-registration of infant deaths based solely on the biometric model cannot be supported empirically and are likely due to mis-specifications of the model as well as inappropriate methods for estimating the parameters of interest. The study uses data for 21 parishes in nineteenth-century Sweden. (EXCERPT)

Book Reviews

Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Peter Skoöld, The Two Faces Of Smallpox: A Disease and its Prevention in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Sweden, Sweden: Umeaå University, 1996. Pp. 654. Np. ISBN 91-7191-247-9. PETER RAZZELL PETER RAZZELL Open University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social History of Medicine, Volume 10, Issue 3, December 1997, Pages 473–476, https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/10.3.473 Published: 01 December 1997

Life histories of single parents and illegitimate infants in nineteenth-century Sweden

The importance of legitimacy and illegitimacy for differing levels of infant mortality has generally been left out of the discussion of historical demographers. This essay presents tentative findings for the Sundsvall area of Sweden, which is being studied in a recent project on the decline of infant and childhood mortality in the Nordic countries. The focus is on the complete reproductive histories of single mothers and the life expectancies among infants born to women who at least once in their reproductive life history experienced the birth of an illegitimate child. In Sundsvall, industrialization only temporarily affected the illegitimacy ratio, but its effect was obvious even in agrarian parishes. The number of illegitimate children per woman remained relatively stable over time, with the exception of the town of Sundsvall. It was more common in the urban environment to give birth to several illegitimate children. Mortality was also higher among these infants, but the negative effects can be seen equally among both legitimate and illegitimate children. Even if illegitimate births were more common in the town, there was no clear trend over time indicating the existence of “subcultures,” as proposed by Peter Laslett.

Iron production and the household as a production unit in nineteenth-century Sweden

Cet article envisage les ménages au travail. Le ménage comme unité de production est traité dans le cadre d'un modele théorique à partir de l'exemple des familles de fondeurs du Gästrikland (Suède), observées au cours de la première moitié du XIXe siècle. L'objectif de ce travail est de comprendre comment la production du fer en barres par des artisans spécialisés au sein d'ateliers centralisés s'est éloignée graduellement de la sphère familiale. Le travail salarié masculin est tout d'abord étudié en détail avant que ne soit abordée la dynamique des rapports complexes entre le travail des fondeurs, celui des femmes au sein du ménage et aussi en dehors et la taille et la structure de ménage dans cette communauté.

Men in the demographic transition

Women's fertility is the focus of most demographic analyses, for in most mammals, and in many preindustrial societies, variance in male fertility, while an interesting biological phenomenon, is irrelevant. Yet in monogamous societies, the reproductive ecology of men, as well as that of women, is important is creating reproductive patterns. In nineteenth-century Sweden, the focus of this study, male reproductive ecology responded to resource conditions: richer men had more children than poorer men. Men's fertility also interacted with local and historical factors in complex ways to have significant impact on population growth. As a result, "the" demographic transition was local, and locally reversible, in Sweden. Results cannot be simply translated from nineteenth-century studies to current attempts to promote fertility decline, because today, male and female resource-fertility curves differ in shape, not only in magnitude. When we translate studies of fertility decline, it is important to study individual fertility and to discern whether, in any particular case, male and female patterns are similar.

Risk factors for infant mortality in nineteenth-century Sweden.

This study examines risk factors for infant mortality using individual-level data from a sample of parishes in northern Sweden in the nineteenth century. Sweden is of particular interest because of its unusually regular pattern of infant mortality decline during the century. We follow a sample of women longitudinally through their successive pregnancies and observe the mortality experience of each child. Exploratory and multivariate logistic regression analyses reveal an important intra-familial dimension to infant mortality that appears from the early stages of a woman's reproductive career. In addition, multivariate analyses by birth-order group suggest that ignoring intra-familial correlations of infant mortality may result in incorrect inferences. Siblings' shared probabilities of dying as infants suggest that high-birth-order children were not necessarily disadvantaged in any systematic way.

Health, height, and history: an overview of recent developments in anthropometric history.

This paper examines some of the major developments in the field of anthropometric history since the end of the 1970s. The first two sections of the paper consider the conceptual basis of anthropometric history and the relationship between height and the standard of living. Sections 3-7 discuss the contributions made by anthropometric historians to our understanding of the social and economic history of the United States, the history of American slavery, the social history of the United Kingdom, the origins of Habsburg industrialization, and the standard of living in nineteenth-century Sweden. The concluding section summarizes the impact of anthropometric history and identifies a number of areas for further research.

Women, resources, and dispersal in nineteenth-century Sweden

In a recent study, female dispersal in nineteenth-century Sweden has been found to correlate negatively with access to resources: women with limited access to local resources tended to migrate more frequently. In this paper I review the literature to explore whether this observed correlation was derived from a relationship in which a woman's limited access to resources worsened her position in the marriage market and led to migration, as a strategy to improve resources and this position. Many studies within a variety of disciplines indicate that a woman's propensity to disperse from her parish of birth variedinversely with her propensity to inherit resources. My review of the literature suggests that the less likely a woman was to inherit resources, the lower her probability of marriage, the later her expected age at marriage, and the earlier she left home, presumably to improve her resource base for marriage.

Family Patterns in Nineteenth-Century Sweden: Impact Of Occupational Status and Landownership

This study investigates the impact of resources on family patterns. Resources vary within and between regions; individual access to resources may also vary. Data from the Swedish Demographic Database, Umeå, Sweden, allowed comparisons of reproductive life in four Swedish parishes during the 1800s. Data were analyzed at both aggregate and lineage levels. Occupational status and land ownership are shown to have affected men's reproductive lives, though particulars varied among parishes. Legitimacy and parity (birth order) affected access to resources. Two new measures are introduced to supplement standard demographic measures: actual lifetime fertilities (NBC: number of biological children born to the individual), and the number of children alive at age ten (RS10).

Kinship and Sociability: Urban Shopkeepers in Nineteenth-Century Sweden

Recent studies in the history of the European petty bourgeoisie, that is, shop keepers, master artisans, and other small tradesmen, have shown the close social relations that existed between the petty bourgeoisie and the working class. Because the two classes occupied the same geographical space, historians have concluded that they were also socially close. In this study an examination of the social structure of witnesses appearing at baptisms of urban shop keepers in four Swedish towns it is possible to see that Swedish shopkeepers mingled within their own stratum and above themselves, while social relations to other classes hardly existed at all.

Occupational status and reproductive behavior in nineteenth-century Sweden: Locknevi Parish.

This paper examined the effects of status as reflected by occupation on marriage fertility and survival of children in Locknevi parish Sweden. In the 1st generation (men married 1824-40) greater differences in the range of occupations existed than in subsequent generations. Mens reproductive patterns varied in concert with their occupational status. Little occupational mobility was apparent for men. This would suggest other things being equal that the reproductive differentials would accumulate over time. However by the 2nd generation in the sample during the period of apparent resource constriction in Locknevi Parish as land became scarcer and parcels became smaller reproductive differentials associated with occupation disappeared. Family size and rate of production of children decreased during this period as well. The pattern is consistent with Lockridges suggestion that the fertility transition occurred earlier than previously supposed in Sweden. In Locknevi it appears to have occurred as the result of elimination of reproductive differences previously associated with differences in resources. Although occupational correlations with reproduction disappeared after the 1st generation in this study differences associated with parity remained. sons received relatively more resources directly from fathers than did daughters. Daughters could gain access to resources from their husbands. The fact that womens lifetime fertility and number of children surviving to age 10 showed no major patterns with either fathers or husbands occupational status is of interest. (Authors modified).

Measures of Polygyny in Humans

Measures of Polygyny in Humans

Time-Geography and Economic Development: The Changing Structure of Livelihood Positions on Arable Farms in Nineteenth Century Sweden

This paper has a threefold aim. Firstly, we discuss briefly the analytical perspective of time-geography, originally developed by Hägerstrand. In particular, we suggest that as it has so far been presented, and notwithstanding the numerous claims for its great potential significance on a social theoretical level, 'his methodology has not yet been elaborated to such a degree that it can incorporate links between the day to day activities of individuals with which it seems to be primarily concerned empirically and the major processes of social and economic determination and change frequently referred to in the more theoretical feces of work. We propose that this inadequacy might be at least partially overcome by incorporating the concept of livelihood Position into the time-geographical system in a full and deliberate way. Only through a development along these or similar lines can time-geography become capable of analysing socio-spatial processes as well as describing the spatial patterns of daily movements that reflect them.Secondly, we show that many important questions about the transformation of Western European peasant societies are concerned with the nature of stations and livelihood positions and their changes. Thirdly this suggested elaboration of time-geography will be exemplified in terms of the development of capitalist farming in an arable area of Sweden in the nineteenth century. In this way we hope both to cast further light on the nature of the process which produced capitalist farming in peasant society and to explore the possibility of extending the analytical capacity of time-geography towards something more nearly correspondent with the claims of its most enthusiastic advocates.

Time-Geography and Economic Development: The Changing Structure of Livelihood Positions on Arable Farms in Nineteenth Century Sweden

This paper has a threefold aim. Firstly, we discuss briefly the analytical perspective of time-geography, originally developed by Hagerstrand. In particular, we suggest that as it has so far been p...

The impact of feeding patterns on infant mortality in a nineteenth century Swedish parish.

An analysis of the relationship between infant feeding practices and infant mortality in nineteenth-century Sweden is presented. The data concern the parish of Nedertornea and are from a variety of sources including parish records vital statistics and the Demographic Data Base at the University of Umea Sweden. The relative impact of improved medical services and changing breast-feeding patterns are explored. Regional differences are also considered. (ANNOTATION)

From Sweden to America

Abstract During the last century and thc first three decades of this about one million Swedes emigrated, most of them over the ocean. In the middle of the nineteenth century Sweden had three and a half million inhabitants. The mass emigration from Sweden to America must therefore have made a profound impression upon Swedish society.

Travelling pedlars in nineteenth century Sweden

Abstract Until 1847 retail trade was illegal in the Swedish countryside and did not become completely free until 1864. But the government, even with the support of the cities and towns, had great difficulty in enforcing the law. In any case farmers were allowed to sell their own products and also town citizens sometimes had special rights. Outside the towns, fairs were held on officially fixed days.