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Prudence and Pressure: Reproduction and Human Agency in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900

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A study of human reproduction and social organization in preindustrial communities that reveals important similarities between Europe and Asia.This pioneering study reconceptualizes the impact of social organizations, economic conditions, and human agency on human reproduction in preindustrial communities in Europe and Asia. Unlike previous studies, in which Asia is measured by European standards, Prudence and Pressure develops a Eurasian perspective. Drawing on rich new data and the tools of event-history analysis, the authors challenge the accepted Eurocentric Malthusian view that attributes "prudence" (smaller families due to late marriage) to the preindustrial West and "pressure" (high mortality due to overpopulation) to the East, showing instead important similarities between Europe and Asia in human motivation and population behavior.The authors analyze age, gender, family and household, kinship, social class and power, religion, culture, and economic resources in order to compare reproductive strategies and outcomes. They reveal underlying similarities between East and West in two major components of the reproductive regime--marriage and childbearing--and offer evidence showing that preindustrial reproduction was motivated and governed by human agency at least as much as by human biology. Prudence and Pressure is part of a large-scale interdisciplinary effort to use new data and methods to re-examine the Malthusian paradigm of population growth. It represents a significant advance in the fields of historical demography, history, and sociology.OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

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Publisher

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press., 2010

Collation

1 online resource (xxv, 380 pages) :illustrations, maps.

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9780262326476

Classification

NONE

Content Type

text

Media Type

computer

Carrier Type

online resource

Edition

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Subject(s)

Europe
Asia
Fertility, Human

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

Noriko O. Tsuya, Feng Wang, George Alter, James Z. Lee

Other Information

Cataloger

reva

Source

https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/3432/Prudence-and-PressureReproduction-and-Human-Agency

Validator

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8162.001.0001

Journal Volume

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Journal Issue

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Parallel Title

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