Survival strategies of widows and their families in early modern Holland,c. 1580–1750

This article analyses the impact of widowhood upon women in early modern urban society in Holland. Widows were able to maintain their households and to minimize the discontinuity with their lives when married. A remarkably egalitarian inheritance and marital property law, access to a broad range of occupations, a privileged status, an extended poor relief system, institutionalised mutual assistance and new forms of financial provisions for widows enabled widows to survive after the loss of an adult male breadwinner. However, legal rights, social provisions and economic opportunities available to women in the Dutch Golden Age and thereafter, could not prevent social polarization after women lost their spouse.     

Marriage market in early modern Kyoto, 1843–1868

This study uses the population registers of 17 Kyoto neighborhoods to address marriage in Kyoto. Our analyses focus on the age differences between spouses and intermarriage between Kyoto natives and migrants from other provinces. Our previous analysis showed that the median age at marriage was tightly linked to life-cycle service in Kyoto with male and female ages at marriage corresponding to the end of the service period. Later analyses have shown that a third or more of the live-in employees listed as “servants” were migrants to Kyoto from other provinces, and males predominated in the migrants in the Kyoto population at ages after the service period ended. We find that migrants who remained in Kyoto married and all others left. We also find that those who remained were likely to marry Kyoto natives and the age differences between spouses was often relatively small.     

Marriage market in early modern Kyoto, 1843–1868

This study uses the population registers of 17 Kyoto neighborhoods to address marriage in Kyoto. Our analyses focus on the age differences between spouses and intermarriage between Kyoto natives and migrants from other provinces. Our previous analysis showed that the median age at marriage was tightly linked to life-cycle service in Kyoto with male and female ages at marriage corresponding to the end of the service period. Later analyses have shown that a third or more of the live-in employees listed as “servants” were migrants to Kyoto from other provinces, and males predominated in the migrants in the Kyoto population at ages after the service period ended. We find that migrants who remained in Kyoto married and all others left. We also find that those who remained were likely to marry Kyoto natives and the age differences between spouses was often relatively small.     

Violence or justice? Gender-specific structures and strategies in early modern Europe

This article aims at getting a deeper understanding of gender-specific justification of violence in early modern legal discourse and practice. The analysis focuses on structures and strategies concerning women's supposed misconduct, disobedience and sexually suspicious acts, and violence related to this. The legal cases referred to originate from the secular lower courts' proceedings of the cities Stockholm and Munich in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

In addition to acts perceived as crimes, such as rape, the term violence refers to those not necessarily qualified as wrong, such as domestic castigation. Furthermore, in this study, the subject violence also applies to discriminatory legal structures and customs. The core questions therefore are: To what extent were disciplinary and penal methods as well as other acts upon a woman's body understood as just and legitimate, to what extent and in what circumstances were they seen as violent and wrongful, and how did this reflect the contemporary gender roles?     

Managing a large household. The gender division of work in orphanages in Dutch towns in the early modern period, 1580–1800

Early modern social institutions were modelled analogous to the family, and work within these institutions strongly depended upon the co-operation of women and men. This type of organization seems to be contradictory to processes of professionalization and bureaucratization. This article investigates to what extent professionalization and bureaucratization took place in early modern orphanages and how this influenced the gender division of work. By analyzing various occupations, remuneration and access to work in three Dutch orphanages it becomes clear that the frequently mentioned characteristics that made ‘typical’ women's work combinable with women's reproductive tasks, were not all applicable and cannot wholly explain female access to these occupations. Work was characterized by an increasing differentiation, hierarchy and, to a certain extent, bureaucratization tendencies. At the same time, the gender division sharpened. However, the late eighteenth century ideology of women as nurturers and the strong analogy to the role women were supposed to play within the household prevented exclusion from this domain.     

Reaching out to the people? Assessing the relationship between parliament and citizens in Finland

Despite the Open Government (Parliament) initiatives and notions of a ‘democratic parliament’, the relationship between legislatures and citizens remains seriously under-researched. This article introduces a comprehensive analytical framework, combining the normative principles of visibility, accessibility, and permeability with practical indicators (parliament as public space, sharing of information, contact with MPs, media and digital engagement, transparency of legislative process, and actual participation in legislative decision-making) for assessing the public engagement of parliaments. Applying this framework to the Finnish Eduskunta, the authors show that despite recent reforms that have partially ‘opened up’ parliamentary proceedings and attempted to connect citizens to democratic process, there remains scope for reforms and innovations. The Eduskunta should embrace a more positive approach towards new forms of civic participation, particularly regarding how its influential committees operate. The findings reflect the tensions between, or the difficulties in reconciling, traditional forms of representative democracy with alternative and more direct channels of political participation.     

Trends in the proportion of married women of reproductive age in Spain, 1887–1991

Using the Princeton nuptiality index I_m, we analyzed historical developments in the proportion of married women of reproductive age in Spain. We show the internal diversity in nuptiality patterns and offer an explanatory statistical model based on panel data analysis to identify the main variables influencing these changes over more than a century (1887–1991). We found that Spain has been the developed country with the greatest contrasts in its provincial nuptiality patterns (measured by I_m), although this diversity has lessened over the course of time. We also found that some socioeconomic variables (the gross domestic product per capita and the percentage of population living in cities) do not have a linear relationship with female nuptiality but rather have a U shape or an inverted U shape. This may partly account for some of the controversy that has raged on this topic over the past few decades on an international level.     

Immigrants’ interaction with the police in Finland: Is it distorted or inflammatory?

One enduring conflict area in police–minorities relations is the distrust of the police by minorities and consequently, the low level of confidence in the police among racial minorities. This stems from the impact of race in policing; and the perception that racial discrimination is a feature of criminal justice systems across the world has intensified. Moreover, race controversy is not new in police work. It is against this background that many police establishments are becoming increasingly frustrated by ethnic minority /immigrant allegations that they are being singled out as easy targets for police stop and search practices. In Finland, however, only little is known about immigrants’ views of police interaction, and perceptions of police discrimination in the country. Moreover, the police force in Finland may also be characterised by discriminatory mechanisms which are found in police institutions of other Western states where there has been more extensive research on the issue. The aim of the present study is to examine the attitude of immigrants toward the police by seeking to place the patterns of immigrants’ interaction with the police into context using their experiences as the basis of the analysis. The study also evaluates the impact of “ethnicity” in immigrants’ police experiences in our attempt to better understand how immigrants are subjected to stereotypical behaviour within the criminal justice system despite the fact that the police are tasked with carrying out their mandate to protect every citizen in the country. Thus, the interactions of immigrants with the police are our focus of analysis in our quest to understand new challenges brought about by the new immigrants in Finland. One thing is certain, however: police are not immune from racial conflict; as they continue to operate within our societies regardless of the ethnic composition of the country must be considered as a major policy issue of legal analysis. Therefore, the cultural and contextual nature of immigrants’ interaction with the police and the author's analysis will serve as the basis for assessing what may be required to ensure that discrimination is eliminated from the criminal justice system in the country.     

Faulty genes or faulty parents? Gender,family and survival in early and late childhood in the Netherlands, 1860–1900

According to the famous economist and Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen women have a significant biological advantage over men. Despite this fact women do not always live longer. In today's third world, but also in some areas in Europe at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century we find so-called excess female mortality. In this paper we examine child mortality in The Netherlands in general and gendered patterns of child mortality in particular. The focus is on differential mortality patterns by gender for infants, older children, and young adults up to age 20 in the second half of the 19th century. The analysis takes place at three levels. We start off with an exploration of sex differentials in mortality at the national level, based on the existing literature. We next examine gender differentials in mortality at the level of several Dutch communities, in the region called Twente, focussing on the differences between the city and the countryside. The final part of the analysis focuses on the micro level of the individual and his or her family in the rural community of Lonneker located in the Twente region. In this part of our study we make use of longitudinal individual level data which are analysed with event history methodologies. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that young women and girls in The Netherlands were not always in a position to fully capitalise upon their greater biological advantage and suffered instead considerable excess mortality. Especially in the rural parts of the country girls had lower survival chances. The individual level analysis confirms the importance of sex in explaining child and adolescent mortality. These gendered mortality risks can however not be attributed to social and economic household characteristics. The analysis also shows that, when death came, it literally affected the entire family. This phenomenon, better known under the label ‘death clustering’, may have been an effect of parental incompetence.     

How and why does the platelet count in postmortem blood change during the early postmortem interval?

We examined the changes in the early postmortem platelet count in postmortem blood and the reasons for these changes by counting the platelets, by performing in vitro hypostatic tests, by estimating the percentage of erythrocytes by volume in postmortem blood samples, by immunohistochemistry (anti-CD61, anti-fibrinogen), and by immunoelectron microscopy (anti-CD62, anti-CD63, anti-thrombospondin). The apparent initial increase in the platelet count in postmortem blood was found to be caused by hypostatic phenomena. The subsequent discontinuous decrease in the platelet count despite continuing hypostasis in the corpse can be explained in part by postmortem thrombolysis and the development of reversible platelet-platelet aggregates. The main point is, that changes in the postmortem blood environment cause potentially reversible adhesion of platelets to pre-adsorbed fibrinogen on erythrocytes. Thus the decrease in the number of platelets in postmortem blood is not attributable to postmortem clotting but to a decrease in the number of countable platelets in postmortem blood.     

Homicide Trends in Finland and Estonia in 1880–1940: Consequences of the Demographic,Social and Political Effects of Industrialization

While in western Europe and Scandinavia homicide rates reached their all time low during the period of industrialization, in Finland and Estonia they increased considerably. The rapid growth of criminal violence during the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s in these two countries seems to have been the result of interaction of several factors, partly non-simultaneous and unrelated. They do not seem to have been identical either, although the underlying equation was the same: the quick social and economic change following industrialization, and the modernisation of agriculture, the pressures it put especially on the youth in the form of uncertain prospects for the future and a new competition-oriented set of values, connected with the authoritarian political system of Russian Empire, which prevented necessary political reforms and left behind a legacy of social thinking idealizing violence as a political and social instrument. A legacy, which affected large parts of Finnish and Estonian population still for years after the czarist system itself already passed into history. The criminal violence arisen from the equation, however, had quite a different face on the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland from that on the southern one. In Finland the violence was centered in the new forest industrial communities, in Estonia again among the landless population of the countryside.     

Did Roman Treatment of Freedwomen Influence Rabbinic Halakhah on the Status of Female Converts in Marriage?

Rabbinic legal texts often pair converts with freed slaves. This association has been explained by the notion that, like converts, freed slaves joined Judaism upon manumission; therefore, freed men and women were legally viewed like converts. I suggest an inverse and more complex dynamic, through which Roman laws and concepts regarding freed persons influenced particular elements of rabbinic halakhah concerning converts, especially female converts. Since Roman freedwomen were new citizens with certain marital limitations, which have been attributed to lacking pedigree and an assumed sexual history (during servitude), their legal status offered a useful prism for considering female converts, who also had matrimonial restrictions and were without lineage. Moreover, given that a freedwoman’s prior enslavement had implications for her sexual background, female converts were viewed through that same lens. So, even though female converts may have come from non-Jewish families that considered their daughters’ virginity an important asset, the rabbinic legal linkage of freed slaves and converts affected several halakhot concerning female converts and their status in marriage, irrespective of their actual sexual history. Yet certain non-legal rabbinic teachings distinguish between these two female cohorts, resembling the differentiation between freedwomen and freeborn females that characterized the Roman world.     

A note on the facticity of animal trials in early modern Britain; or,the curious prosecution of farmer Carter’s dog for murder

For a century or so there has been a lively debate on the meaning of animal trials in early modern and medieval Europe. One unresolved issue in this debate is the geographical and jurisdictional incidence of animal trials, including their facticity in Britain. This essay explores some neglected evidence in this regard, namely, three British animal trials identified in E.P. Evans’ (1906/1987) authoritative text The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals.     

Through the meshes of patriarchy:: The Male/Female Relationship in the Saguenay Peasant Society (1860–1930)

This article offers an analysis of women's life and status within the peasant family of the Saguenay region (Quebec) prior to the completion of the settlement process. After a brief survey of the literature in the field, a variety of sources (including several bodies of oral data) is analyzed, offering the conclusions that: (1) it is useful to carefully distinguish between the macro-social or societal level (State, Church, capital …) and the micro-social sphere of the family and the conjugal couple; (2) the societal scale was made up of unambiguously patriarchal powers, norms, and institutions, whereas at the micro-social level, the reality was much more complex and offered a great deal of diversity; (3) societal constraints heavily influenced the conjugal relationship but not in a deterministic way. The latter remained a social area where the women, somehow, remained able to maneuver, to negotiate and to assert themselves; (4) the same can be said of the thesis that male ownership and control of the means of production necessarily entailed subordination and proletarianization of the married women; and (5) it would be fruitful to explore the idea that male domination was mostly rooted and secured not in the family but in the societal arena.     

Hypernatremia and subdural hematoma in the pediatric age group: is there a causal relationship?

Several researchers in the 1950's proposed that hypernatremia causes water to leave brain cells, shrinking the brain, thus tearing the bridging veins and resulting in subdural hematomas. Although the old literature suggests mechanisms linking the two in a cause and effect relationship, there is controversy as to whether hypernatremia leads to subdural bleeding or whether the reverse is true. This issue is important for forensic pathologists who must distinguish natural disease from trauma. An etiologic link between hypernatremia and subdural hematomas was suggested recently, and was proposed originally before Kempe's 1962 paper "The Battered Child Syndrome" which widely disseminated the concepts of child physical abuse, and of subdural bleeding resulting from non-accidental injury. Our study is a multifaceted investigation of infants which includes: a literature review, retrospective chart reviews of both living and deceased hypernatremic infants, a retrospective review of infants hospitalized with subdural hematoma, and a prospective collection of head injured, hypernatremic children. We conclude that hypernatremia, if present in association with subdural hemorrhage, is most likely secondary to intracranial pathology, and that hypernatremia often develops in critically ill infants suffering from a variety of medical conditions.     

Is the Process the Only Punishment?: Racial–Ethnic Disparities in Lower-Level Courts

Although misdemeanors make up the bulk of criminal cases in the United States, the majority of research on court decision-making examines felony sentencing. In contrast to felony courts, lower-level courts are characterized by higher case volumes and increased reliance on informal sanctions, which may contribute to greater racial–ethnic disparities. To assess this possibility, we examine pretrial detention and case processing outcomes for misdemeanants in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Utilizing temporal (detention time) and monetary (bond amount) measures of pretrial detention, we assess whether and to what extent there are racial–ethnic disparities in formal and informal sanctions facing misdemeanants. Results indicate that black defendants, especially black Latinx defendants, face greater informal sanctions (longer detention and higher bond amounts), are more likely to be convicted, and experience more severe formal sanctions than do white non-Latinx defendants. These findings complicate Feeley's (1979) argument about lower-level cases, revealing that black defendants are punished by both the court process and formal sanctions. In this way, “the process is the punishment” for lower-level white and nonwhite defendants, while the punishment is also the punishment for black defendants.     

Can canines alone be used for age estimation in Chinese individuals when applying the Kvaal method?

Due to the secondary dentin formation, the dental pulp undergoes changes in shape throughout life. Based on this phenomenon, the Kvaal method has been applied to various populations for age estimation, and its usefulness has been verified. When applying the Kvaal method to Chinese subjects, we observed a relatively strong correlation between mandibular canines and age. This study notes the correlation between canines and chronological age and is the first to identify which canine is most closely related to chronological age. In addition, a new, simpler formula is determined based on canines according to Kvaal’s methodology. The radiographs of 360 individuals from northern China were selected, from which the widths and lengths of the pulp from four canines were measured according to the Kvaal method. Next, inter- and intra-observer reliabilities were analyzed in order to assess the repeatability of these measurements. The correlation between measurements and age was examined, and Chinese-specific age estimation formulae were derived. The results revealed that the ratios from the left maxillary canine exhibited the strongest correlation with age compared to the other canines, whereas the left mandibular canine showed the weakest correlation, which may contribute to the overall poor correlation of mandibular canines with age. What’s more, the formula derived from the left maxillary canine in this study displayed the highest coefficients of determination, and the formula derived from all canines showed the lowest residuals. Both of these formulae performed better than the Chinese-specific formula derived from six different types of teeth in our previous study, which had formerly possessed the highest coefficients of determination and the lowest residuals. Thus, we concluded that canines do play an important role in age estimation in the Chinese population, and the correlation between maxillary canines and chronological age is stronger than that of mandibular canines, although no distinct trend as to which side is better correlated with age was established. Going forward, we recommend the analysis of additional samples from different geographical regions and populations to further verify the importance of canines in age estimation.     

Population and households dynamics: A mountainous district in northern Japan in the Shûmon Aratame Chô of Aizu, 1750–1850

The authors examine population trends, demographic characteristics, and the family reproduction system in a highland area of Japan. Aizu district is located in northeastern Japan and has both a mountainous area and a narrow plain. The study is based on Shûmon Aratame Chô (SAC), population registers of four villages between 1750 and 1850 and focuses on the mountainous sector. Demographically, this area stagnated because of its isolation and remoteness. There were few migrations in or out. The peasants married early but bore few children. The authors show how demographic patterns are interrelated with family and household patterns. The most frequent family type was the stem family household, traditionally considered as characteristic of Japan, where the ie (house) was usually transmitted to a single heir. Family transmissions of the rural estate are observed in detail. A household cycle took about 30–35 years to complete. Major differences were seen among social classes, but, overall, Aizu families possessed ideals of ie and were incorporated into ie systems, particularly in the upper classes.     

“The old woman's wish”: widows by the family fire?: Widows' old age provisions in rural England, 1500–1700

This article considers the extent of changes between 1500 and 1700 in the provisions for widows in the wills from two villages in the east of England (Cratfield and Poslingford in Suffolk). Will-makers were by no means a homogeneous group but had more in common with each other than they did with the poor. The stage in life reached by both the testator and his widow helped determine the type of old-age provision received and the degree of involvement with the estate. The existence of young children proved to be not as an important factor in the decision-making process as either age or social status. Some widows received land from husbands who had been yeomen; other received goods. Older testators favored annuities and similar arrangements, while younger testators (under 60) preferred a division of property between the widow and at least one son. When there were minor children, the widow was more likely to be awarded all or part of the landed estate. Over time, greater reliance upon cash and credit created a more fluid and responsive range of old-age provisions but did not completely replace traditional forms of support.