Nationalism and family ideology: The case of Lithuania at the turn of the 20th century

At the turn of the 20th century, many European countries paid increasing attention to the family as a social institution. The interest itself was closely related to the rise of nationalism in Europe, and consequently, the family was supposed to serve its goals. Similar to German, Italian or French nationalists, Lithuanian-speaking intelligentsia were aware of the importance of the family in developing a strong nation. Nevertheless, unlike Westerners, the Lithuanian nationalists did not connect the family ideology with pronatalistic discourse. Lithuanian family ideology was not focused on procreation as its main goal. Only a nationally conscious wife and children raised in the Lithuanian spirit were considered to be the most solid base for a strong nation.     

Progress in forensic anthropology: the 20th century

Anthropological contribution to forensic sciences has been multifaceted and the progress has been remarkable in the last quarter of this century. The field has brought together scientists from all around the world. The purpose of this paper is to present a special issue on forensic anthropological research. Some of the papers cover age estimation from the ankle and knee epiphyses (India), basioccipital synchondrosis (also India), sternal end rib metamorphosis in Turks, and histomorphometry of the Japanese. Sex determination from the South African cranium and Mongoloid humerus are the subject of two papers. Factors of individualization include a comparison of photographic images using neural network, bone trabecular radiography, determination of handedness from the humerus, time since death using 210Po to 210Pb ratio, and changes in the mineral content of bone after burial. From the papers in this special issue it can be concluded that there will be integration of many areas of forensic sciences to deal with anthropological issues in the 21st century. Estimation of time since death will be based on new and more precise techniques. Further research is needed to develop population specific osteological standards for populations of Africa, central and southeast Asia and Pacific region. In addition, there will be an increased interest in the study of living people.     

The study of adolescence during the 20th century

The scientific study of adolescence in America during the 20th century is reviewed, beginning with the work of G. Stanley Hall. Recurring themes and shifts in focus spanning the last century are identified. Hall's ideas about normative turmoil have been replaced by the recognition that as they pass from childhood to adulthood adolescents may take a number of different paths, many of which are not tumultuous. There is now growing recognition that the definition of these paths and the timing of entry into and out of adolescence are dependent on societal and historical constraints.     

Patterns of family formation: Marriage and fertility timing in Bulgaria at the turn of the twenty-first century — A case-study of Sofia

In this paper, we discuss the changes in the process of family formation in Bulgaria at the end of the twentieth century. Studying the ideal patterns of family formation and the place of children and marriage within them, we offer six typological models. Based on recent population developments and social values changes, we argue that the Hajnal line and the associated hypothesis concerning the existence of separate Eastern and Western Marriage Patterns are irrelevant for understanding the present demographic situation. Attempts to update the line to accommodate recent developments are counter-productive as they obscure the commonality of demographic processes at work across the European continent.     

Marriage systems and remarriage in 19th century Hungary: a comparative study

The paper tries to examine the intensity and possible influencing factors of remarriages in two distant communities of historic Hungary during the 19th century. It uses longitudinal data gained from parish registers and family reconstitution method and event history models for the analysis of remarriage. Having only incomplete information on the social status of widowed persons, we used sex, age at widowhood, period, duration of widowhood and family composition as independent variables in the models. The analysis could prove that there were considerable differences within the ‘Eastern marriage pattern’: the analysed Transylvanian community showed a higher propensity to remarry than the West Hungarian one. This result fits well into the differing demographic patterns of the two communities. The most probable causes of these differences were better mortality and differing social composition in the Hungarian village. High propensity to remarry and the high proportion of widower/widow marriages stress the unique character of the Transylvanian community. Otherwise the role of sex was decisive in remarriage, that of age and duration of widowhood were also considerable, while period effect could not be observed. The presence of working-age sons decreased the relative risk of remarriage significantly. In this respect there were no considerable differences between the studied communities, and the results are similar to those of other research.     

The dynamics of household structure in the event of the father's death: Québec City in the 18th century

This article looks at the survival strategies used in traditional societies by households that were greatly disrupted by the death of the father, usually their principal provider. Research is based on data from two parish censuses (1716 and 1744) of the city of Québec that describe the composition of urban households. Data from the Registre de la Population du Québec Ancien (RPQA), the register of the Québec population before 1800, were also used to complement the information required. Depending on the survival of a mother after the father's death, it appears that households could maintain their nuclear structure, except for those who were dispersed among other households.     

Demographic aspects of the Greek household: The case of Preveza (18th century)

The demography of the Greek household is investigated within the context of the town of Preveza. The size, age, and sex composition and structure of the household are also considered. Two detailed censuses of the town are used: the first carried out in 1719, and the second, around 1780. The mean household size has been calculated: 4.24 for 1719 and 4.36 for c. 1780. Analysis of the data shows a clear predominance of males, particularly among the young, and of simple family households. Results presented here need to be seen in the light of other regions of Greece, since few studies yet exist.     

The urban household in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900–2000: Patterns of family formation in a turbulent century

Starting from census data on co-residence and household composition, the authors analyse principles of family organisation and family formation in twentieth-century urban Russia and the Soviet Union. The article uses an adapted version of the classification of households developed by Peter Laslett and Eugene Hammel to study variation in household structure for successive population censuses. Changes in this variation between cross-sections are explained with the help of additional quantitative and qualitative data and are linked to the fundamental demographic, social and economic shifts which took place in Russian society in the course of the twentieth century. The article finds a family system characterised by a tendency towards nuclear family formation, but incorporating a fairly stable element of household extension. Co-residence of three generations was both an answer to a perennial housing problem and offered important advantages in the sphere of childcare and care for the elderly. Variation and fluctuation in household structure are found to be most pronounced during the turbulent first half of the century. After a period of stability during the post-war decades of Soviet rule, post-Soviet transformations provoke new changes.     

The Jewish population and family in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 18th century

The sources that can be employed to examine demographic aspects of the Jewish population and family in 18th-century Poland–Lithuania are sparse and mostly fiscal in origin. Since this source material has been preserved only for some periods and regions, few generalizations can be made. First, the authors have referred to the most comprehensive census that was carried out in 1791 by household in Cracow province (województwo krakowskie). It does not allow for detailed family reconstitution, however. Although extended/multiple family households might have been fairly common, the two-generational conjugal family unit seems to have prevailed, and no more than four nuclear families lived in one house. In addition, the age at first marriage was influenced only to a limited extent by the traditional practice of early marriage.     

Family breakdown and the ‘Welfare Child’ in 19th and 20th century Britain

This article traces new cycles of interest in past children as distinct from past childhood. Recent work highlighting that a conceptualisation of childhood existed even in periods with few written records closes the chapter begun by Philippe Ariès in 1960. Instead, there has been a new surge of interest in children on the edges of family life, as well as children in similarly liminal positions between the worlds of adults and children: runaways, delinquents and orphans. Several themes in the literature are identified, based on the conflicting ideas of ‘body/mind’, ‘victim/threat’, ‘needs/rights’. It is noted that researchers are using more imaginative ways of reaching the lived experience of children than the family or institutional framework, and that an increasing link is drawn between historical and modern concerns such as child abuse and the care of ‘at risk’ children.     

Gunshot injuries as a topic of medicolegal research in the German-speaking countries from the beginning of the 20th century up to the present time

The 100th anniversary of the foundation of the German Society of Legal Medicine is a good opportunity to review its contributions to forensic wound ballistics. The present article gives an overview of the scientific development in this field with special emphasis on work pioneering new developments and findings valid up to the present day, for example the presence of carboxyhemoglobin in the vicinity of the entrance wound as a sign of a contact or close-range shot [A. Paltauf, Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 3 (1890) 984-991, 1015-1017]; the correct interpretation of the muzzle imprint [A. Werkgartner, Beitr. Gerichtl. Med. 6 (1924) 148-161] and the retrograde ballooning of the bullet entrance region in contact shots [F. Hausbrandt, Dtsch. Z. ges. Gerichtl. Med. 38 (1944) 45-76; H. Elbel, Med. Welt 20 (1958) 343-345]; wound patterns from captive-bolt livestock stunners [H. Czursiedel, Dtsch. Z. ges. Gerichtl. Med. 28 (1937) 132-133]; singeing of synthetic fiber textiles in close-range shots with nitro powder ammunition [S. Berg, Arch. Kriminol. 124 (1959) 5-8,17-22]; the wound ballistic processes on penetration of the bullet and the origin of the abrasion collar [K. Sellier, Beitr. Gerichtl. Med. 25 (1969) 265-270]. More recently medicolegal research in the German-speaking countries covered the following subjects: studies of the dynamic bullet-target interactions in experimental gunshots to simulants and composite body models; use of modern imaging techniques (CT, MRI) in the pre-autopsy diagnosis of lethal gunshot injuries; injuries from blank guns; mechanisms of incapacitation by gunshot injuries; development of improved methods for the evidence of gunshot residues on the firing hand; backspatter from close-range shots; medicolegal contributions in the discrimination of accidental, homicidal and suicidal gunshot injuries.     

Families and family structure in a Neo-Hellenic city: Hermoupolis in the mid-19th century

This article begins with the creation and development of the city of Hermoupolis and stresses its prominent economic role during the 19th century in the Greek state. It points out the problems of the official censuses and emphasizes the importance of the original source of the 1861 census of Hermoupolis, which was found in the city's municipal archives. It analyzes this source and offers some working hypotheses about the structure of households (where the dominant type is the simple family), the frequency of domestic servants, the wide spectrum of occupations, the origin of inhabitants, and social mobility based on 501 households (17%) representing 1901 individuals (17.52%) of the total for which we have information.     

Paths toward autonomy: The living conditions of fostered children in western France in the early 20th century

In order to test the validity of widespread notions about the unhappy lives of abandoned French children placed in foster care around the turn of the 20th century, the article uses the case files and inspectors' reports of the Romorantin agency to analyze the nature of fosterage: the children's continuing links to their biological parents, to their foster families, and with the Assistance publique system, which administered the fosterage system and the agency. The Romorantin agency was located in Sologne in the center of France, 120 miles south of Paris, and placed out in the countryside only children “abandoned” in Paris. The analysis suggests that although the lives of fostered children were characterized by constraints and, at times, mistreatment, in many respects, these children were able to experience more autonomy and choice to shape their lives than their peers in “normal” families. A close reading of the sources shows their lives to have had less of the stereotyped unhappiness usually attributed to them.     

"My'Partner'in Law and Life": Marriage in the Lives of Women Lawyers in Late 19th and Early 20th Century America

This essay examines the ways in which women lawyers of two generation–the pioneer generation of the 1880s and the "new woman" generation of the 1910s–confronted the dilemma of marriage and career. Members of the Equity Club in the 1880s revealed three distinct sets of attitudes toward balancing marriage and career: the separatist approach that a professional woman must remain single; the Victorian attitude that a married woman must sacrifice her career; and the integrated approach that a woman could have both marriage and career. Women lawyers surveyed by the Bureau of Vocational Information in 1920 revealed that the "new woman" generation of women lawyers lived in an era of transition. While they shared the same separatist, Victorian, and integrated views toward marriage and law practice as did women lawyers in the 1880s, they also embraced the new values of the early 20th century which shaped both the contours of the legal profession and the parameters of women's lives. Set within the context of the new values of the era, the separatist, Victorian, and integrated approaches to resolving the dilemma of marriage and career, which were originally formulated by women lawyers in the late 19th century, assumed new meanings for women lawyers in the early 20th century.     

Women who shared a husband: Polygyny in southern Albania in the early 20th century

In Europe little attention has been paid to polygyny, though it occurred in the Balkans in the recent past. Data from an Austro-Hungarian census of two-thirds of Albania taken in 1918 give a rare opportunity to examine it. As elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, the extent of polygyny was modest, but it was more widespread in rural areas than in towns. This article looks at polygyny in Mallakastër, one area of southern Albania. While not specifically provided for by customary law, polygyny was accommodated within it. Marriages were contracted in the same way as monogamous marriages, and both co-wives lived as part of the family. There is no direct evidence of the reasons why some marriages were polygynous. It may have been a response to childlessness in some cases, but this was neither a universal justification nor a universal explanation. It was probably also a means by which families augmented their labor supply in the absence of an institution of servants. A law enforcing monogamy in 1929 and changes that made polygyny less acceptable and less necessary have resulted in its disappearance.     

Criminology and superstition at the turn of the 19th century

Criminology, which institutionalised at university level at the turn of the 19th century, was intensively engaged in the exploration of superstition. Criminologists investigated the various phenomena of superstition and the criminal behaviour resulting from it. They discovered bizarre (real or imagined) worlds of thought and mentalities, which they subjected to a rationalistic regime of interpretation in order to arrive at a better understanding of offences and crimes related to superstition. However, they sometimes also considered the use of occultist practices such as telepathy and clairvoyance to solve criminal cases. As a motive for committing homicide superstition gradually became less relevant in the course of the 19th century. Around 1900, superstition was accepted as a plausible explanation in this context only if a psychopathic form of superstition was involved. In the 20th century, superstition was no longer regarded as an explanans but an explanandum.     

十九世纪末二十世纪初人权语词在中国的使用

一百年前的1908年,清朝政府在各种压力之下,权衡利弊,颁行了《钦定宪法大纲》,从而开创了中国立宪之路,同时也开启了中国的宪政之路。但是,宪法、宪政毕竟是舶来品,在与中国特定国情相结合过程中,产生了种种的理论上的激烈争论;亦在实现宪政之路上出现了种种的曲曲折折。当然,中国要实现宪政、必然要实现宪政,这是历史之大势,浩浩荡荡,奋勇向前,应当是毋庸置疑的。在《钦定宪法大纲》颁行一百年之际,反思清末的立宪与中国的宪政之路,无疑是一件有意义的事情。     

Sex assessment from the carpals bones: discriminant function analysis in a 20th century Spanish sample

Sex assessment is one of the first essential steps in human identification, in both medico-legal cases and bio-archaeological contexts. Fragmentary human remains compromised by different types of inhumation or physical insults may frustrate the use of the traditional sex estimation methods, such as the analysis of the skull and pelvis. Currently, the application of discriminant functions to sex unidentified skeletal remains is steadily increasing. However, several studies have demonstrated that, due to variation in size and patterns of sexual dimorphism, discriminant function equations are population-specific [1,2,5,12,61]. In this study, in order to improve sex assessment from skeletal remains and to establish population-specific discriminant functions, the diagnostic values of the carpal bones were considered. A sample of 100 individuals (50 males and 50 females) of known sex and age was analyzed. They belong to a 20th century identified collection from the Municipal Cemetery of "San José", Granada (Spain) and housed in the Laboratory of Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Granada (Spain). The age of the individuals ranged between 22 and 85 years. Between four and nine measurements of each carpal bone were performed [41,59]. Discriminant function statistics showed a sex assessment accuracy as high as 97.8%. The results suggest that carpal bones can be used for assessing sex in both forensic and bio-archaeological identification procedures.     

Central European household and family systems,and the ‘Hajnal–Mitterauer’ line: The parish of Bujakow (18th–19th centuries)

The article examines marriage behaviours, household patterns and household formation rules prevailing among the population of the Upper Silesian parish of Bujakow during the late 18th and the first part of the 19th century. Their character, it is argued, is crucial not only for the proper understanding of European family systems in the past, but also for accurate comparisons of family systems in Europe and Asia. The family pattern prevailing in this part of central Europe exhibited a ‘hybrid’ nature in many respects. The pattern's chief characteristics were a moderate age at marriage, the dominance of simple family households and the high incidence of lifecycle servants. Serial household lists revealed, however, the significant diversity in proportions of household types between censuses and between villages. Despite the strong indication of a stem family pattern in the parish, the analysis of headship transmission revealed the concurrent co-existence of various modes of household formation among families. Some of these formation processes did not vary much from neo-local principles or followed exactly this type of pattern. This study also made it possible to reconsider the supposed relationship between the seigneurial authority and family behaviours in the parish pointing out the considerable degree of autonomy of the peasant subjects.     

Marriage relationships among households in the mid 19th century Tama,Japan: Socioeconomic homogamy,geographical endogamy and kinship networks

This paper studies the formation of marriage relationships between households in 19th century, Tama, Japan. Previous studies on marriage market or partner selection in the Japanese past tended to rely either on information from a single village in case of statistical analysis, or on collection of oral histories. By using the information from a household register that covers 35 villages, and applying a method of social network analysis, this paper goes beyond the limitation of previous studies. Our empirical results show that there was a tendency for socioeconomic homogamy and endogamy (within kinship and within village) among peasants in the mid 19th century Tama, Japan.