1. Objectifs

Intentions :
Cette étude vise à mesurer le taux mortalité infantile dans les familles dans la ville de Krummhörn en Allemagne entre 1720 et 1825 et dans la ville et de Québec au Canada pendant la période 1670 à 1720. Ainsi, les auteurs tentent d’observer si la présence d’une «belle-mère» dans le cadre familial est responsable pour la croissance de la mortalité infantile.

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«A comparative analysis of the consequences of parental loss (Willführ and Gagnon forthcoming) shows that children of the Krummhörn region in East-Frisia, Germany, born between 1720 and 1825 exhibited increased mortality if their fathers remarried after the death of their mother. In contrast, the survival of children from the historical population born between 1670 and 1720 in Québec, Canada, was not affected by the remarriage of their fathers.» (p. 149-150) «Infants born in Krummhörn, Germany, between 1720 and 1874 and infants born in Québec, Canada, between 1670 and 1720 differ remarkably in terms of social and environmental conditions. The Krummhörn region was a saturated habitat with virtually no expansion possibilities (Voland and Dunbar 1995), whereas land was abundant in Québec (Charbonneau, Desjardins, and Légaré 2000).» (p. 153) «In Québec, the concentration of infant deaths appears to be higher than expected from the binomial distribution […]. The concentration in Québec is also higher than the concentration in the Krummhörn region. A possible explanation for this difference might be that marriage frequency was lower in Krummhörn than in Québec.» (p. 158)