Bart Van de Putte

The Inheritance of Longevity in a Flemish Village (18th-20th Century)

The transmission of longevityor post-reproductive survival from parents tooffspring is investigated using data ondemographic and socio-economic characteristicsof the inhabitants of a small Flemish village(Moerzeke) over a period of three hundredyears. This research confirms the possibleexistence of biological mechanisms intransmitting longevity from parent tooffspring. However, this finding can only beobserved for men and women belonging tospecific birth cohorts (mainly those men bornbetween 1821 and 1860 and those women bornbetween 1791 and 1830). Furthermore, thesex-specificity of the transmission, which waspresent in other studies, is not found in thisresearch. Both factors indicate that theimportance of ones biological potential forlongevity can only be realized in specificsocietal conditions.

Determinants of divorce in nineteenth-century Flanders.

In 1830, the year Belgium became independent, there were four divorces in Belgium. From about 1870 to 1910, there were about one hundred divorces per year, and since 1910, there have been about 1,000. The aim of this research is to investigate the factors that played a role in the increase in the number of divorces in Belgium in the course of the nineteenth century. The research relates to information from four Flemish municipalities for the period 1800-1913. Results indicate that an explanation of the rising divorce rate can be sought in the psychological and social consequences of the more pronounced shift in marriage, gender, and family expectations. Increasing numbers of women threw themselves more and more into their gender-specific expressive gender role, whereas the objective opportunities and attainability of this role did not increase commensurately. The result was role strain: high marriage and family expectations soon come up against intrinsic limitations. As a result of this, both individual and general frustration increased, and this was an ideal social substratum for facilitating divorce.