Publication Date

10-12-1979

Abstract

The size and composition of households and families in the Lutheran parishes of Finström and Kökar, Åland, Finland are described by data derived from linking the parish Communion Books and civil tax records (mantal). The period between 1760 and 1880 is examined via single year cross-sectional analyses for the years 1760, 1800, 1840, and 1880. Overall aggregate data for the two parishes reveal a pattern of formation and maintenance of large, multi-generational households in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, aggregate data show a secular trend of declining mean household size and the proportion of complex household structures in Finström but a continuation of the eighteenth century household pattern in the smaller, more isolated Kökar. In addition to aggregate analyses, constituent family and household variables (e.g., number of children, number of coresident kin other than the nuclear family of the head of household, number of coresident non-related persons such as lodgers and servants) are examined with regard to spatial and temporal variation and social class differences. The more detailed analyses show that variation in the size and composition of households and families within the parishes is associated with social class and that variation between parishes is dependent on land availability.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Peter Louis Workman

Second Committee Member

Anita Louise Alvarado

Third Committee Member

Henry Cosad Harpending

Fourth Committee Member

Richard Finn Tomasson

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