Stigmatized cohabitation in the Latvian region of the eastern Baltic littoral: nineteenth and twentieth centuries

The social history of coresidence arrangements in the Latvian region suggests that forms of cohabitation without marriage were present in the Latvian population since the eighteenth century when empirical evidence became available. Before the twentieth century, however, these forms remained marginal and seldom involved choice. The subject of severe criticism until the 1960s–1970s, such forms become more widespread thereafter as the Latvian population began to exhibit many key features of a second demographic revolution. Post-Soviet censuses now suggest that such coresidence patterns in the Latvian population approach the levels of those in most western European states, including the Scandinavian countries.     

Church,marriage, and legitimacy in the British West Indies (nineteenth and twentieth centuries)

The British West Indies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries exhibit an extremely high proportion of non-marital unions as well as the highest rates of illegitimacy in the world. A large number of explanations have been proposed, including slavery, the West African heritage, the imbalance between sexes, and the low-wage economy. The present article introduces an additional factor: the degree of control exerted by the Christian churches on conjugal behavior. One consequence of the British West Indian variant of Christianization was a class-specific differentiation in how firmly orthodox forms of European Christianity came to be anchored in the indigenous populations. While the clergy of the Christian churches after 1838 exerted relatively strong control upon the white upper class and the colored and black middle class, their control was weaker over lower classes. This led to a class-specific differentiation in the institutionalization of the Christian European marriage model, which— after 1838—was fully adopted by the upper and middle classes, but only partially among the lower class.     

To punish,treat, or pardon: French society and the enuretic child in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Since the eighteenth century, increasing attention has focused on the physical and moral capabilities of young children. In defining the stages of life, childhood specialists used toilet training at variously determined ages as a sign of an infant's normality. As a social problem as well as a medical symptom, childhood enuresis (bed-wetting) often implied rejection phenomena within families and institutions and provided childhood specialists with a field of research and experimentation. The violence of certain interventions was a response to families' anxieties. Over time, however, intervention has become much less direct as a result of the influence of psychological interpretations of the problem and as interpretations of the symptoms have shifted away from various biological hypotheses.     

The unexpected effect of social status on reproduction: a case study in Joseon Korea from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries

We examine how parents have made decisions about the number of children they have, given their social status in accordance with residential location (either urban or rural areas) and time (either the pre-modern or modern periods). We use two sets of microdata – Jokbo and Jejeokbu – spanning the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries in Korea. Combining the two data-sets, we use multiple imputation to fill the missing entries of some observations and apply a Poisson regression model on the augmented data. Our empirical results reveal statistically significant evidence that higher socioeconomic status is related to having more children. Additionally, our findings indicate that: (1) all else being constant, among high-status people, rural residents had more children than urban families; (2) for people born between 1800 and 1945, those born closer to the 1940s tended to have fewer children; and (3) during modernization, there was still a significant trend for high-status families to have more children.     

Naming for kin and the development of modern family structures: An analysis of a rural region in the netherlands in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

It is generally assumed that the conjugal family—the family that lived independently from extended kin—came into existence in the Netherlands relatively early, and that a new attitude towards children, characterized by an emphasis on the individuality of the child, developed at more or less the same time. To test whether this more narrow range of kin and the stronger emphasis on the individuality of the child translated itself also in a deviation from the traditional practice of naming newborn children for kin, the article analyzes naming patterns in a rural area of the Netherlands during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The conclusion is that the rise of the conjugal family and the new attitude that recognized the child as an autonomous individual had no impact on the degree of naming for kin. In a more general sense, the findings raise doubts about the idea that changes in family structures and mentality directly express themselves in changes in naming practices.     

Patronymic names and Noms de terre In the french nobility in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries

Surnames among the French nobility are often composed of patronymic names, titles, and noms de terres (names of lands), joined by the preposition “de.” The aim of this article is, first, to analyze the articulation and devolution processes of these different components, as well as the meaning they could have had in the ancien règime. Second, the article examines what happened after the French Revolution to such names. The example of a court proceeding in the nineteenth century, involving two families and dealing with the usurpation of a nom de terre, leads to questions concerning the relations between law, common use, and the many functions of proper names in contemporary society.     

The role of the wedding place. Community context and marital timing in nineteenth and early twentieth century Netherlands

This study investigates how community characteristics influenced the timing of marriage of men and women in nineteenth and early twentieth century Netherlands on the basis of a large scale database consisting of marriage certificates covering five provinces of the Netherlands between 1840 and 1922. The results show the significance of religious context for understanding marriage timing in the nineteenth century. Living in a predominantly Catholic community resulted in a later marriage for both men and women, while living in a community that was dominated by Orthodox Protestants resulted in an earlier marriage, particularly for men. In addition, residence in a municipality with a high mobility, a large population size and a high birth rate speeded up marriage timing among both men and women. The results indicate that religious restraint and the urbanization and openness of places are, next to parental social class, of vast importance for understanding marriage timing. As our study only addressed those who married, future research will have to show whether the same mechanisms were at work for those that experienced permanent celibacy.     

The role of the wedding place. Community context and marital timing in nineteenth and early twentieth century Netherlands

This study investigates how community characteristics influenced the timing of marriage of men and women in nineteenth and early twentieth century Netherlands on the basis of a large scale database consisting of marriage certificates covering five provinces of the Netherlands between 1840 and 1922. The results show the significance of religious context for understanding marriage timing in the nineteenth century. Living in a predominantly Catholic community resulted in a later marriage for both men and women, while living in a community that was dominated by Orthodox Protestants resulted in an earlier marriage, particularly for men. In addition, residence in a municipality with a high mobility, a large population size and a high birth rate speeded up marriage timing among both men and women. The results indicate that religious restraint and the urbanization and openness of places are, next to parental social class, of vast importance for understanding marriage timing. As our study only addressed those who married, future research will have to show whether the same mechanisms were at work for those that experienced permanent celibacy.     

The legal nature of shares in landowning joint stock companies in the nineteenth century

This essay examines some of the contexts in which women appear especially in non-royal deeds from the kingdom of Scotland in the years between roughly 1150 and 1350. It is based on a survey of several thousand charters written on behalf of both men and women, native, Anglo-Norman and European. It considers how charter evidence may be used to illuminate the extent to which women both used and shaped the laws and customs that governed the conveyance of land in medieval Scotland, and examines changes in women's legal capacity over time. Recent studies on literacy in later medieval Europe have shown that women participated actively in the literate culture of the period and that they exerted a sometimes profound influence on written texts themselves, and this theme is explored at some length in the context of Scottish charter evidence. Also examined is the extent to which traditional Gaelic customs in respect of women's property rights shaped and influenced the early common law of Scotland.     

The use of the family: Property devolution and well-to-do social groups in Catalonia (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries)

The perpetuation through time of social position is one of the aims of individuals, and in order to achieve this they makes use of the economic, social, and political mechanisms at their disposal. The institution of the family constitutes an important aspect of the life of a person and provides instruments (marriage, systems of property devolution, celibacy, etc.) that permit the creation of a strategy by which social reproduction is assured. Nonetheless, in any given society, there exist groups of individuals that gain access to economic resources in similar ways, thus constituting more or less homogeneous social groups. The way in which this is done is conditioned by the way in which they make use of the family and the instruments that are governed by it. This article analyzes the predominant family system in Catalonia (in Northeastern Spain) and its implicit contradictions. It also evaluates the strategies developed by well-to-do social groups to confront these contradictions and facilitate access to resources.     

Urban infant mortality and religion at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth century: the case of Ekaterinburg,Russia

Modern demographers analyse regional and other infant mortality differentials as important factors behind the current life expectancy of Russian citizens. Historically, however, the Russian Empire is simply displayed as one block with high infant mortality rates. Also with respect to cultural background factors, Russia is often perceived as religiously homogeneous with the Orthodox Church dominating the country. In reality, Russia has a long history of coexisting religious traditions. This includes both provinces with a majority of Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists or shamanistic populations as well as territories characterized by religious diversity and significant minority religions. Our project studies minority religious groups in the Urals, a province by the Ural Mountains stretching into Asia. While no territory can claim to be truly representative of this mega-country, we believe that this centrally located province is well suited to show some of the Russian variety, including differential infant mortality among the followers of minority religions, which is the topic of this article. We employ church record microdata to study Catholics, Jews and Old Believers in the main metal-producing city of Ekaterinburg.     

德国法学教育制度及其对我们的启示

德国法学教育的典型特征是双轨制。法学教育由大学基础学习阶段和见习阶段组成 ,是一种学术教育与职业教育相结合的制度。大学基础阶段的学习以通过第一次国家考试为终结标志 ,见习阶段则以通过第二次国家考试为终结标志。作者分析了这种法学教育制度多方面的优越性 ,同时揭示了其中存在的不足 ,以期对中国法学教育体制的改革和完善提供一些启示。     

Spatial variation in non-marital fertility across Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: recent trends,persistence of the past,and potential future pathways

This article investigates spatiotemporal variation in non-marital fertility across Europe over the last 100 years. In the first 50 years of this period, non-marital fertility was generally declining, reaching very low levels in the mid-twentieth century. But starting in the 1960s, non-marital fertility increased strongly. The main aim of this paper is to investigate to what degree the persistence of the past might be relevant for understanding spatial aspects of the recent rise. A secondary aim is to explore how spatial non-marital fertility variation is likely to develop in the future, both between and within countries. The outcomes support the view that historical patterns are relevant for understanding current non-marital fertility variation in most parts of Europe. However, the persistence of the past varies spatially, and seems to fade over time. The analysis of current trends in spatial variation between countries suggests that an east–west dichotomy is currently emerging: i.e., countries that are not in the European Union and that have Orthodox Christian or Muslim traditions exhibit higher propensities to remain at or to revert to comparatively low levels of non-marital fertility. Within Northwestern Europe, suburban belts around big cities appear to be the last strongholds of marital fertility.     

弘扬法制保障人权反对邪教(笔谈)

几名"法轮功"痴迷者受李洪志驱使在天安门广场自焚的事件,再一次证明,邪教"法轮功"危害极大,必须坚决铲除.我们必须充分认识到同邪教"法轮功"斗争的尖锐性、严重性、复杂性和长期性,决不可麻痹松懈.为此,我刊特组织了本期笔谈,从法律角度揭批"法轮功"邪教组织本质,探讨如何用法律武器对其予以严厉打击.     

Evidence collection in the German, American and Chinese legal systems: A comparative analysis

After comparing different procedures of evidence collection in the German, American and Chinese legal systems, the author analyzes the reasons behind the differences: Each system is determined by its specific social culture and is compatible with the construction of the civil procedures of its own. Based on China’s specific social culture and its system of civil procedure law, the German style of evidence collection is in a better position to provide guidance for China in pursuit of justice.     

Micro-history and the macro-models of the European demographic system in pre-industrial times: life course patterns in the Parish of Belm (Northwest Germany), seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.

"Current models of the European demo-economic system in pre-industrial times are based on strong assumptions about the predominant patterns of individual life courses. Now recent micro-studies of individual communities make it possible to check whether the actual patterns of life fit these assumptions. The findings for Belm present an amazing blend of confirmations and contradictions. In particular, the connection between marriage and the formation of a new self-supporting household is subject to doubt. Together with the findings of other micro-studies, the evidence for Belm suggests that the assumptions about mechanisms linking marriage to economic resources should be reconsidered, and that there is need for a dialogue between macro-theories and micro-history."     

Predictors of re-offending in German substance-abusers in legal detention: a prospective population-based cohort study

This study aimed to evaluate whether the elapsed time after release to first re-offense is longer for those who complete coerced forensic addiction treatment than for those who fail to complete the treatment. It is also aimed to identify predictors of re-offending for both those who complete such treatments as compared with those who do not. Two hundred and sixty-one patients discharged from five German forensic addiction clinics were investigated on 65 anamnestic, socio-demographic, and therapeutic process variables. One hundred and fifty-one patients were prematurely discharged and returned to prison (group A; time at risk [TAR] = 58.7 months), 110 finished treatment successfully (group B; TAR = 44.2 months). Federal Criminal Register data were used for follow-up. Univariate survival analyses and multivariate stepwise Cox-regression models were computed. Twelve predictors in group A revealed a four-factor model: age at admission to treatment, duration of concurrent prison sentence, number of entries in the criminal register, and attendance at prior substitution programs. The model for group B covered five out of eight predictors: regular working activities before first diagnosis of mental illness, type of main offense, (secondary) traffic offenses, outpatient rehabilitation treatments, and escapes during treatment. Successful completers of forensic addiction treatment are slower to re-offend than non-completers.