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Balkan Family Structure and the European Pattern
Demographic Developments in Ottoman Bulgaria
Maria N. Todorova is a Professor of History
at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
This study, which is an updated, extended, and revised
version of the out-of-print 1993 edition, reassesses
the traditional stereotype of the place of the Balkans
in the model of the European family in the nineteenth
century on the basis of new source material and by synthesizing
existing research.
The work first analyzes family structure and demographic
variables as they appear in population registers and
other sources, and the impact of these findings on theoretical
syntheses of the European family pattern. On most features,
such as population structure, marriage and nuptiality,
birth and fertility, death and mortality rates, family
and household size and structure, as well as inheritance
patterns, the Balkans show an enormous deal of internal
variety. This variability is put in a comparative European
context by matching the quantifiable results with comparable
figures and patterns in other parts of Europe.
The second section of the book is a contribution to
the long-standing debate over the zadruga, the complex,
collective, joint or extended family in the Balkans.
Finally, the book considers ideology and mythology and
the ways it has adversely affected scholarship on the
family, and broadly on population history.
Contents
Preface to the second edition; Acknowledgements;
I. Introduction: Rethinking the Unknown; II.
Population Structure; Age Structure; Sex Structure;
III. Marriage and Nuptiality; The Marriage Ritual
and Seasonal Patterns of Marriage; Age at Marriage;
Remarriage, Cross-Kin Marriages and Other Characteristics;
IV. Birth and Fertility; Births, Baptisms and Their
Registration; Measurements of Fertility; Twins in a
Closed Population; V. Death and Mortality; Gender
and Age Specific Mortality; Seasonal Patterns of Mortality
and Causes of Death; VI. Family and Household Size
and Structure; Family and Household Structure; Family
and Household Size; Inheritance Patterns; VII. The
Problem of the South Slav Zadruga; Distribution
and Development of the zadruga in the Balkans; An Alternative
Explanation; VIII. Conclusion: A Hypothesis of Converging
Theories; A Summary of Conclusions; Appendices;
Notes; References and Bibliography; Index
"An important contribution to major discussions
in the area of historical demography. Its basic criticism
of structural and historical generalizations fits well
into ongoing research efforts to question their theoretical
and empirical foundations. Its skepticism of using historical
concepts of family history to strengthen 'the myth of
the individualistic European Sonderweg' is highly welcome.
This book suggests that currents surveys in Western-language
historiographies should be checked carefully for stereotypes
about the social and economic history of Southern, Southeastern,
and Eastern Europe." - American Historical Review
Published in the series Pasts Incorporated, CEU Studies in the Humanities
2006
263 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-45-5 cloth $45.00 / € 34.95 /
£30.00
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