Kinship and Demographic Behavior in the Past

What is the influence of family and kinship networks on fertility, marriage, migration and mortality? Population scientists have studied the relationship between families, both immediate and extended, and demographic behavior for many years. This volume highlights the convergence of research by a group of demographers, economic historians, historians, anthropologists, sociologists and geneticists. The contributors use longitudinal databases from different cultures to study families that existed in the past and focus on the role that families and kin groups played in both early and later life events.


This book examines the role of kinship and the family’s influence on the health outcomes of their children, their children’s selection of marriage partners, couples having higher order births or reduced fertility, individual migration and origins of populations. Mortality patterns are examined to determine the influence of fertility patterns on parents’ mortality, the contribution of parents’ longevity to their children’s lifespan, and the whether a family history of disease affects the risk of dying from that same disease.


This volume emphasizes the importance of studies that include and compare other factors related to social organization with information on multi-generational families. The authors elucidate previous explanations and provide provocative new results. Such intergenerational research is crucial in understanding long term demographic trends and processes.