Stanislao Mazzoni

Spouse selection by health status and physical traits. Sardinia, 1856–1925

Military medical information and data from civil registers of death and marriage have been used to study the role of physical characteristics and health conditions in explaining access to marriage for the male population of Alghero, a small city located in Sardinia Island (Italy), at the turn of 19th century. Literature data about contemporary populations have already demonstrated the influence of somatic traits in the mate choice. The results presented here show that men with low height and poor health status at the age of 20 were negatively selected for marriage. This holds true also in a society where families often arranged marriages for their children. This pattern of male selection on marriage was found to be particularly marked among the richest and wealthiest SES groups. Our hypothesis is that this social group carefully selected for marriage those individuals who were apparently healthier and therefore more likely to guarantee good health status and better life conditions to offspring. In evolutionary terms, the mate choice component of sexual selection suggests that the height of prospective partners could be claimed as one of the determinants, along with other environmental causes, of the observed higher stature of men belonging to the wealthiest social strata of the Alghero population.

Nuove indagini per l'analisi della mortalità nei primi anni di vita in Sardegna

Il saggio analizza la mortalita fino al quinto compleanno in Sardegna e, piu precisamente, nella comunita marina di Alghero e nel villaggio montano di Urzulei, nella regione Ogliastra, un’area dell’interno rimasta nei secoli fortemente isolata. I dati delle due comunita, al di la di non poche incertezze nella valutazione del fenomeno della nati-mortalita anche in epoca unitaria, confermano appieno le peculiarita della mortalita dei bambini in Sardegna, gia efficacemente descritte da Coletti (1908). Le due comunita, in particolare Urzulei, sono connotate da bassi livelli di mortalita nel primo anno di vita e, soprattutto, rispetto a quelli riscontrati nelle eta immediatamente successive. Tra l’unita e i primi decenni del ’900, i rischi di morte mostrano ad Alghero una significativa riduzione che risulta del tutto assente nel villaggio di Urzulei. Quest’ultimo, pur partendo da una condizione di decisivo vantaggio, si trova al termine del periodo quasi al punto di partenza, forse per effetto del permanere di una forte arretratezza igienico-sanitaria e di una pressoche totale assenza di personale medico e di assistenza professionale al parto.

Socio-economic status and fertility decline: Insights from historical transitions in Europe and North America

The timings of historical fertility transitions in different regions are well understood by demographers, but much less is known regarding their specific features and causes. In the study reported in this paper, we used longitudinal micro-level data for five local populations in Europe and North America to analyse the relationship between socio-economic status and fertility during the fertility transition. Using comparable analytical models and class schemes for each population, we examined the changing socio-economic differences in marital fertility and related these to common theories on fertility behaviour. Our results do not provide support for the hypothesis of universally high fertility among the upper classes in pre-transitional society, but do support the idea that the upper classes acted as forerunners by reducing their fertility before other groups. Farmers and unskilled workers were the latest to start limiting their fertility. Apart from these similarities, patterns of class differences in fertility varied significantly between populations.

The relationship between family characteristics and height in Sardinia at the turn of the twentieth century

Abstract This paper is intended as a contribution to the debate on the determinants of physical stature in the past and it specifically investigates whether, in Sardinia, height − considered as a proxy of the share of household resources allocated to a child’s growth − was influenced by the number of brothers and sisters amongst whom parents had to distribute available resources. This study is limited to the male population, because military records represent the only source at our disposal providing historical data on height. The community studied is the town of Alghero, located on the north-western coast of Sardinia, at the turn of the twentieth century. We have adopted a longitudinal approach, thanks to the rich dataset reconstructed for Alghero, using different sources including family, socioeconomic and anthropometric indicators. The results, in line with the resource dilution hypothesis, show that competition within the household was of some importance and that the effects on height due to scarcity of resources were particularly evident amongst farmers, the most representative socioeconomic status group in Alghero. A significant contribution to the stature reached in adulthood was also given by the socioeconomic status of the family or else by other individual characteristics.

Le trovatelle di Iggio (Parma) Comportamento nuziale delle esposte dell'Ospedale di Parma nella seconda metà del XIX secolo

Le trovatelle di Iggio (Parma). Comportamento nuziale delle esposte dell’Ospedale di Parma nella seconda meta del XIX secolo In questo lavoro sono presi in considerazione alcuni aspetti del comportamento demografico degli esposti valutati tramite l’uso di atti parrocchiali, piuttosto che dall’analisi delle carte dell’ospedale. Il punto di vista qui adottato rappresenta pertanto l’altra faccia della medaglia nella vita degli esposti. La popolazione presa in esame e quella residente nella Parrocchia di Iggio, villaggio collinare situato nel territorio dell’odierno comune di Pellegrino Parmense, durante il XIX secolo. La ragione di questa scelta sta nel fatto che piu della meta delle famiglie di Iggio ospitava un esposto, generalmente proveniente dall’Ospedale di Parma. Dato che numerosi erano i matrimoni di esposti e che questo rappresenta un segno di integrazione o almeno una volonta a stabilirsi sul territorio una volta raggiunta la maggiore eta, l’oggetto specifico di questo studio e il comportamento matrimoniale degli esposti della comunita di Iggio.

A Slow Transition. Infant and Child Mortality Decline in a Sardinian Community: Alghero (1866–1935)

The originality of this study lies in its use of individual microlevel data in reference to a medium-size urban community, the Sardinian municipality of Alghero. For the first time in the urban Italian context we are able to analyse the role of socio-economic determinants and environmental conditions affecting infant and mortality for the cohorts born between 1866 and 1930.

La graduale e ritardata transizione in Sardegna. Analisi microanalitica della fecondità delle donne di Alghero al censimento del 1961

La graduale e ritardata transizione in Sardegna. Analisi microanalitica della fecondita delle donne di Alghero al censimento del 1961 Il presente contributo e incentrato su una comunita del nord-ovest della Sardegna e si propone di analizzare il processo di graduale e ritardata transizione della fecondita avvenuto nell’isola. La fonte utilizzata e costituita dai fogli di famiglia del censimento della popolazione italiana del 1961 del comune di Alghero. Tale documentazione, grazie all’indagine sulla fecondita in essa contenuta, permette di ricostruire dettagliatamente i comportamenti riproduttivi delle generazioni di donne nate tra l’unita d’Italia e l’inizio della seconda guerra mondiale, vale a dire coloro che, almeno a livello nazionale, sono state le protagoniste del declino della fecondita. I risultati dello studio, relativo alle donne algheresi, per le quali e possibile ricostruire l’intera storia riproduttiva non mostrano chiari ed evidenti segni di riduzione e di controllo della fecondita, con la parziale eccezione dei settori della popolazione socialmente piu avanzati. The gradual and delayed transition in Sardinia. Microanalytical analysis of fertility of Alghero’s women at the 1961 census This paper is focussed on Alghero, a North-Western Sardinian community, and aims at analysing the process of gradual and delayed fertility transition in the island. The data sources are the original Census household returns of 1961, stored in the Alghero municipal historical archive. The Census includes a fertility survey that allows a detailed reconstruction of reproductive behaviours for the cohorts of women born between national unification and the beginning of the second World War, who played a leading role in fertility decline, at the national level. Our results for Alghero, at least considering fertility completed women, do not show any clear signs of fertility control and reduction. However our data show socio-economic differentials. For the most affluent socio-economic groups signals of innovative reproductive behaviours have been detected.

Fertility and Socio-Cultural Determinants at the Beginning of Demographic Transition : Sardinia, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

The present paper is the first to our knowledge that makes use of individual level data for a community of Southern Italy, Alghero, a town of about 10,000 inhabitants situated on the North-western coast of Sardinia, a region whose demographic history has never been approached by means of nominative studies. As described in the next sections, the complex and detailed linkage of nominative information has been just finished, but it still needs some revision and data cleaning. For this reason, the present analysis is focused on the fertility of the marriage cohorts 1866-85 reconstructed on individual bases and investigated by means of micro-analytical techniques. Those couples married in a very peculiar phase of Italian history. In those years, in fact, it emerged a strong contraposition on marriage between the Church and the State. In 1866, the State introduced the new law on civil marriage, which in turn determined the legal invalidity of religious marriages. For the new Italian Kingdom, the sole legal marriage was the one celebrated before a civil official. This contrast between the Church and the State lasted until 1929, with consequences that make impossible any direct approach to the study of marital fertility based on official statistics (Livi Bacci 1977). In the present work, the nature and type of marriage has been precisely used, along with other socio-cultural variables, such as profession and literacy level, to explain the pattern of reproductive behavior of the couples of Alghero in the very first stages of demographic transition.