Fraternal households of the Saratov province at the end of the XIX century: Historical and demographic analysis

Fraternal households belong to the category of specific complex households consisting of cohabiting single-generation couples. As a rule, their appearance is the result of an unfulfilled family section for one reason or another. Due to their structural exoticism, fraternal families are easily identified and compared. At the same time, by virtue of their peculiarity, fraternal families are more likely unstable collectives, prone to disintegration. Within the framework of this article, an analysis of fraternal households recorded in the materials of zemstvo courtyard censuses of the province of the late XIX century will be made.

The Archaeology of Monastic Households

This chapter explores the buildings and artefacts of late antique monastic sites in Egypt and Palestine. It uses household archaeology to examine the daily behaviours of those who lived in monastic settlements. Household archaeology combines methodologies from archaeology, anthropology, geography, and history. Its application enables us to read the archaeology of monasticism with greater sophistication, so that the artefacts and the places of ordinary life can be interpreted alongside other sources, such as liturgy, images, and texts. Archaeological remains offer an additional lens for reading monastic settlements as complex households or homesteads, and they permit us to write a more nuanced history of monastic life.

Estimating numbers and poverty status of female household and family heads

Historical studies of single females and mothers are mostly based on heads of household only, because family-level information concerning complex households was unavailable and they were, therefore, rendered statistically invisible. This is still the case with modern surveys like the household income and expenditure survey, as income and resource data are only provided at household level. By categorising headship rates by sex, age and marital status, this paper presents a methodology for estimating – in addition to heads of household– the numbers of single females and mothers among members of complex or multigenerational households. Such situations were frequent in the past and continue to be so in developing countries and among migrants. Young couples may also be in such living arrangements, mostly in times of crises and tight housing markets.The data analysis shows that access to independent dwellings and to household headship is strongly related to income and employment, and the associated selection leads to significant biases in estimates of the socio-economic status of households or families, in favour of mostly better-off families. The poorest households are made up of those who live independently because no other option is open to them. Little option is open to those with little or no resources, either, and thus they live in complex households where their poverty risk cannot be estimated, and where they may have little influence on the education, health and work of themselves and their children.Key words: Female household heads, Poverty estimates, Youth in poverty, living arrangementsResumen: A lo largo de la historia, los estudios sobre mujeres y madres solteras se han basado por lo general solamente en las cabezas de hogar, pues faltaba la información en el ámbito familiar sobre hogares complejos, y esto los hacía estadísticamente invisibles. Esta situación sigue sucediendo en las encuestas modernas, como la encuesta de ingresos y egresos de los hogares (HIES), ya que solo se obtuvieron datos sobre ingresos y recursos a nivel del hogar. El presente trabajo categoriza las tasas de jefatura según el sexo, la edad, el estado civil y así ofrece una metodología para estimar, además de las cabezas de familia, la cantidad de mujeres y madres solteras entre los miembros de hogares complejos o multigeneracionales. Estas situaciones ocurrían con frecuencia en el pasado y aún se presentan en países en desarrollo y entre los migrantes. Las parejas jóvenes también se pueden encontrar en tales situaciones de vivienda, sobre todo en tiempos de crisis o con un mercado inmobiliario limitado.El análisis de los datos muestra que el acceso a una vivienda independiente y a la jefatura de familia está estrechamente relacionado con el nivel de ingresos y el empleo, y la selección asociada conduce a sesgos importantes en la estimación de la situación socioeconómica de un hogar o familia, lo que favorece a las familias acomodadas. Los hogares más pobres son aquellos que viven de manera independiente porque no tienen otra opción. Quienes cuentan con pocos recursos tienen muy pocas oportunidades, y esto hace que vivan en hogares complejos en los que no se puede medir su riesgo de pobreza y no tengan oportunidades de educación, salud y empleo para sí mismos ni para sus hijos.Palabras clave: Mujeres cabeza de hogar, estimaciones de pobreza, jóvenes en situación de pobreza, situación de vivienda

Serfdom and household structure in Central Russia: Voshchazhnikovo, 1816–1858

In this article, data for the serf estate of Voshchazhnikovo, in Yaroslavl' province, is used to test existing theories about peasant household size and structure in imperial Russia. Empirical evidence from soul revisions, household listings, and estate regulations is brought to bear on the view that large, complex households were predominant throughout Russia in the pre-emancipation period, and that landlords' policies had little effect on the demographic behaviour of serfs. Household size and structure in Voshchazhnikovo, which was located in the Central Industrial region, differed significantly from that found for the estates in the Central Black Earth region studied by P. Czap and S. Hoch. Mean household size in Voshchazhnikovo ranged from 4.5 to 5.2, and roughly half of all households were of the simple-family sort. Age at first marriage was later than in the Central Black Earth region, and a greater proportion of females remained unmarried. There were also substantially more female-headed households on this estate than on the estates studied by Czap and Hoch. Finally, estate records suggest that the landlord at Voshchazhnikovo attempted to influence demographic behaviour through the use of fines and taxes. These attempts were successful, though their effects were unevenly distributed across the Voshchazhnikovo serf population.

The Nahua calli of ancient Mexico: household, family, and gender

The Nahua (Aztecs) of ancient Mexico lived in large, extended family households (calli). A fundamental tenet of family history is that in the past high mortality was a major obstacle to household complexity. This was not the case for the Nahua, whose life expectancy was probably worse than any seen in Europe since the Black Death. Nahua populations were characterized by patriarchy, child marriage and greater proportions of complex and more diverse households than in regions of Europe which historians have identified as containing many complex households. Among the Nahua, although relationships within the household could be either uxorilocal or virilocal (relationship through the wife or the husband), subordination of women to male patriarchs was extensive. Most girls were married (cohabiting) well before the age of puberty. Thus, childless couples were common, but males without children rarely attained headship. While neither polygamy nor abandonment was widespread, their significance for gender oppression should not be denied. Widowhood offered new opportunities for companionship, but only for widowers. For widows, remarriage was infrequent and subordination to a male relative was inevitable. In modern Mexico, few remnants of this pre-conquest household system remain. According to the 1990 census, fewer than 10 per cent of Mexicans live as extended kin or as non-relatives in a household, even in rural Morelos where four centuries ago the compound family was the norm. The few modern examples of multiple family households tend to be Hispanic-like virilocal, patrilineal extended families.