Age and family structures among the Jews of Mitau,Kurland, 1833–1834

The article analyzes an 1834 listing of the Jewish inhabitants in the city of Mitau in the province of Kurland, one of the Baltic provinces (the other two were Estland and Livland) of the Russian Empire. From Catherine the Great's reign onward, the Jewish population of the Baltic provinces rose steadily throughout the 19th century, but microstudies of Jewish communities in the region are virtually nonexistent, especially for the first half of the century. The Mitau list shows that the Jewish population there was very young, with about 45% being in the age group 0–14. Age at first marriage for males was about 24 years, and for females 21. From about age 35, 93% of males and 97% of females were married. The mean size of the family group was 5.8 persons, and about a third of all families were either extended (containing unmarried relatives beyond the nuclear family) or multiple (more than one kin-linked conjugal family unit). Judging by kinship terms in the source, the kin system tilted toward patrilineality, as would be expected. These characteristics need to be compared to other Jewish communities before and after 1834—in the Baltic area and surrounding regions—but the paucity of local studies suggests that some time will pass before the Mitau findings can be placed in an adequate comparative framework.     

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.     

Doing family: Responses to the constructions of ‘the migrant family’ across Europe

This paper draws on how constructions of ‘the migrant family’ in political discourse influence migrants' and their families' lives. In specific national contexts, ‘the migrant family’ is determined according to the national and European debates and expressed by their respective rules and regulations. By ‘doing family’, migrants and their families develop strategies in order to fit these requirements of living a certain family life. Fulfilling specific norms and perceptions which are not necessarily required for the majority of society is a precondition to succeed. Who is and who is not part of the family, who holds responsibility — such aspects have to be proved and repeatedly reproduced by migrants and their families. This not only affects their position in society, but also has strong implications on their lives as a couple and family, since it requires the continuous adaptation and reconstructions of their everyday reality.     

Modern Families,Modern Family Justice: Supporting Family Relationships in Fast‐Changing Socio‐Political‐Economic Climates (Summary of the Report of the Consultation at St George's House,Windsor, February 12–13, 2018)

This summary relates to the consultation held at St George's House, in Windsor, England, on February 2018. The attendees came from across Europe and from the United States, and they discussed a range of initiatives designed to address the challenges in modern family justice and the changes in the social, political, and economic environments that are impacting family life across the globe. Although the challenges are very similar, the approach to resolving them varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The attendees concluded that there is much we can learn from each other, and that greater cooperation between family justice professionals across geographic boundaries would be highly beneficial.     

Surrogacy,Identity, Parentage and Childrenʼs Rights – Through the Eyes of a Child

In this article I will focus on two important aspects of children's rights which are impacted by artificial reproductive technology (particularly surrogacy); being the rights to identity and the rights to legal parentage. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges the importance of a child's right to identity, to be protected from discrimination on the basis of the status or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians or family members. For many children born through surrogacy arrangements, they may have only one or no legally recognized parent. The adults caring for them may have parental responsibility orders but this falls well short of providing children with the benefits and protections that legal parentage does. The issue of identity can be complex. Increasingly, states have recognized the importance of children knowing the circumstances of their birth and being able to access biological and genetic information including medical information. From a child's perspective the issues of identity and parenthood are intertwined. Given the importance of identity, more needs to be done to ensure that identifying information about children born as a result of artificial reproductive technology is properly stored and readily accessible for these children. Denying a child legal parentage when there are no concerns about the care being provided by their parents cannot be justified when considered from a children's rights perspective.     

Anthropological facial ‘reconstruction’ – recognizing the fallacies, ‘unembracing’ the errors, and realizing method limits

Despite being practiced for over the last 200 years, facial approximation methods remain in their infancy as the soft tissue prediction methods employed have not been tested and justified. Scientific testing is the only way forward and much of it is needed. The lack of systematic scientific tests in the past has enabled many misleading notions to become established. Many of these notions appear to have arisen and been sustained as a result of practitioner biases--this is clearly evident even in the name commonly used to describe the method of building faces from skulls, for "facial reconstruction" implies everything the method is not, e.g., technical/scientific, exact, and credible. Although facial approximation methods are useful for forensic investigation (even if they do not generate identifications through true positive recognitions of the faces), the public should beware of the marketing and political ploys employed within the profession. These ploys give rise to some impressive, but unjustifiable claims--but do not just take my word for it; evaluate the evidence for yourself with disregard to the indoctrination waged by the facial "reconstruction" field in general, including that promoted by what I have had to say here. Use your own reason and intellect and see which conclusions you reach.     

‘Yeah but,no but’ – Pinnock and Powell in the Supreme Court

This note considers the Supreme Court decisions in Manchester CC v Pinnock and Hounslow LBC v Powell. It is argued that there are a number of remaining outstanding questions around proportionality, including: deference; section 89, Housing Act 1980; procedural issues; ‘publicness’; and the future landscape.     

The Jews of early modern Marburg, 1640s—1800: A case study in family and household organization

This article examines Jewish household and family organization in a middle-sized German city, the Upper Hessian regional center of Marburg, the population of which ranged from 2500 to 6000 from the Thirty Years War to the end of the 18th century. Some general hypotheses about population development, household structure, and family life conveniently summarized by Toch [Toch, M. (1995). Aspects of stratification in early modern German Jewry: Population history and village Jews. In R. P. Hsia & H. Lehmann (Eds.). In and out of the ghetto: Jewish-Gentile relations in late medieval and early modern Germany (pp. 77-89). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] serve as an organizational frame for the case study. In Toch's view, Jews' comparative wealth, as well as governmental restrictions on their settlement and marriage in central Europe, led to their having larger and more complex households than those of the Christian majority. While household enumerations over time confirm several of Toch's observations, especially the larger size of Jewish families, neither Hessian settlement policy nor local Marburg opposition prevented the Jewish minority of about 1% from keeping pace with general population growth. Moreover, Jews did not respond to their regulated living conditions and status as cultural outsiders with a family organization exhibiting remarkably more internal complexity than did Christian households.     

Free and unfree labor in Qing China: Emigration and escape among the bannermen of northeast China, 1789–1909

Though internal migration in China during the Qing era (1644–1911) was mostly unrestricted, the government tightly controlled the movement of peasants who worked state lands in frontier regions and certain other locations. Such peasants accounted for 5–10% of China's population. In the state farms of northeast China, households could move legally only from one place to another within the system. Departure from the system was illegal. In this article, one of the first quantitative studies of migration in late imperial China, we apply discrete-time event-history methods to longitudinal, nominative household register data from six northeast Chinese state farm systems to compare how characteristics of the farm system, village, and household influenced the chances of legal moves and illegal departures. We show that among these state peasants, who were supposedly “unfree,” migration was not uncommon. We also show that the determinants of legal and illegal migration differed substantially. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for our understanding of migration processes in late imperial China.     

Plays,Performances and Power Struggles – Examining Copyright's ‘Integrity’ in the Field of Theatre

This article explores the notion of ‘integrity’ under copyright law by analysing examples of 'integrity‐based objections' in the field of theatre. These objections typically involve playwrights objecting to changes being made to their copyright works by other parties, such as directors and actors. This analysis is deepened by the use of two concepts from the field of art theory – ‘aura’, as put forward by Walter Benjamin, and ‘trajectory’, as outlined by Bruno Latour and Adam Lowe. Finally, to shed further light on the issues raised, the work of Pierre Bourdieu is used to present new empirical research recently undertaken by the author in the field of UK theatre. This research demonstrates that ‘power struggles’ are a common feature of theatrical collaboration; that copyright is deeply implicated in the way such power struggles are conceived; and moreover, that resolving these power struggles successfully – including taking account of ‘integrity‐based objections’ – is crucial to theatrical practice.     

Family,clergy, conviviality and morality among the Greek-Orthodox in Izmir at the end of the Empire

This paper discusses the intricate relation between aspects of social life and the antagonism of the administrative institutions in a particular locality. By using cases of divorce decisions as well as contested weddings among people from different confessions which, despite the fact that they took place in Izmir were reported to and investigated by the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, it aspires to shed light on those liminal aspects where locality and conviviality are transgressed in the name of tradition. Furthermore, the paper investigates the role of the clergy both in dealing with charity and the destitute, and as an institution, whose encounters with modernity triggers tensions and new perceptions of the relation between the church and its congregation, always bearing upon issues of morality and efficiency.     

Evaluation of Non‐Natural Deaths among Veterans: New Mexico Medical Examiner‐Investigated Deaths, 2002–2011

While it is recognized that veterans have increased rates of depression, post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide, and substance use disorders, rates of homicide and unintentional injury deaths in veterans have been minimally investigated. We evaluated all non‐natural deaths in New Mexico veterans between 2002 and 2011 in comparison with non‐natural deaths among non‐veterans. We reviewed all decedents in New Mexico with a history of military service and investigated by the medical examiner, excluding natural deaths and deaths due to fall from standing height. The most common manner of death was unintentional injury (62%), most of these deaths due to motor vehicle accidents (29%) followed by unintentional overdose (26%). Suicide rates among veterans were consistently higher than the general population. The most common mechanism of suicide in men was gunshot wound (72%), and intentional overdose in women (49%). Services are needed for veterans that are tailored to all ages and both sexes.     

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.     

Institutional Change,Party Discipline,and the House Democratic Caucus, 1911–19

Abstract The House Democratic Caucus of 1911 to 1919 is a largely understudied institution in the literature on congressional party government, despite the claims of many scholars that the caucus functioned as a significant instrument of party government by binding legislators' floor votes. An analysis of roll‐call votes, new data from the caucus journal, and contemporary accounts from the period indicate that these claims are largely exaggerated, although the caucus did, on occasion, improve floor discipline within the party. I find that intraparty homogeneity on crosscutting issues was related to caucus success. In addition, I argue that the adoption and use of the binding caucus can best be understood from the “multiple goals” viewpoint of congressional politics. These findings have important implications for understanding the development of party‐based institutions in Congress.     

Marriage,work, and social reproduction in one area of southern Europe at the end of the 18th century: Lorca (1797)

In this article, the process of social reproduction has been analyzed in Lorca, a municipality in the western Mediterranean region of Murcia (Spain) at the end of the 18th century. An exhaustive subset of the data from the local Godoy's census (1797) was used consisting of 29,875 individuals living in a total of 7566 households. This population was distributed between the town, the Huerta (the Murcian irrigated market garden community), and the countryside. Results confirmed, on the one hand, that a direct relationship existed between higher social status and size of household, with a higher number of older children in the households of land-owning farmers than of tenant farmers or day workers. More children in higher status households indicate that children left home later, and therefore inheritance problems rose, which influenced social reproduction within these groups. Spatially, a clear division can be found between the countryside with more male work-hands and a higher index of male activity and the Huerta with a certain female dominance.     

Agenda Power in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, 1988–2000

We present strong evidence that governing coalitions in Italy exercise significant negative agenda powers. First, governing parties have a roll rate that is nearly 0, and their roll rate is lower than opposition parties' roll rates, which average about 20% on all final‐passage votes. Second, after one controls for distance from the floor median, opposition parties have higher roll rates than government parties. These results strongly suggest that governing parties in Italy are able to control the legislative agenda to their benefit. We also document significantly higher opposition roll rates on decree‐conversion bills and budget bills than on ordinary bills—results consistent with our theoretical analysis of the differing procedures used in each case.