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Home > Activities > Committees >Committee on Historical Demography

International Seminar on Kinship and Demographic Behavior

Organized by the IUSSP Scientific Committee on Historical Demography Salt Lake City, 31 October - 1 November 2005.An IUSSP-University of Utah Symposium

Call For Papers

Scholars from several disciplines have focused on the role of kinship structure and its effects on population dynamics. Historians of population have demonstrated the importance of the kinship network to understand demographic and social processes. Historical demographers have closely examined kinship networks in historical societies where kinship is thought to have been a major organizing principle of social groupings. Anthropologists and behavioral scientists have a tradition of studying the cultural bases and consequences of kinship systems and ties. More recently, interest has grown with respect to biological processes and theories and their fundamental linkages with kinship. This trend has, in large part, been motivated by the fact that demography addresses phenomena central to biology (fertility, mortality, and nuptiality). There are a number of inquiries that are using concepts that draw upon these various approaches. For example, kinship structure or early family events have been studied in terms of their effects on outcomes including health, fertility, and mortality. These studies of kinship have stimulated new analytical approaches and have produced findings that are among the most innovative and productive lines of inquiry in population history and social history.

Longitudinal databases derived from family registries, family reconstitutions, population and events registers, and genealogies have become a valuable resource for studies of the social and demographic consequences of familial and kinship networks in the past and are being used to expand the scope of understanding demographic processes. Inclusion of morbidity and mortality information is an important new development because these data enable researchers to address novel questions such as the presence of disease aggregation in families and the association of consanguinity and health outcomes. The addition of information on socio-economic status, such as occupation or landholdings, has further enhanced the richness of such analyses. Indeed, the expanding availability and increasing quality and informational depth of such databases is creating a growing body of research synergies and discoveries between genetic epidemiologists and historical demographers.

To bring scholars from these research traditions together to exchange ideas and perspectives, the IUSSP Scientific Committee on Historical Demography and the University of Utah are organizing a Seminar on Kinship and Demographic Behavior. The impetus for this symposium comes from two sources. The first occurred 30 years ago with the development of the Utah Population Database (or Mormon Historical Demography Project as it was known then); this resource has been used for numerous studies in the area of human genetic and population research. The second theme occurred in the fall of 2004 when an interdisciplinary group of researchers met in Paris for an International Seminar on "New History of Kinship" organized by IUSSP-INED-EHESS.That conference emphasized how the historical demographic study of kinship has changed over the last fifteen years.

The goal of this seminar is to emphasize kinship and familial studies related to demographic outcomes with at least one session focusing on longevity. This will include formal presentations followed by a half-day workshop to discuss methodology, technical challenges and possible collaborations. The methodology and data sources presented in this conference should emphasize the use of historical or longitudinal databases with individual-level information. However presentations describing innovations or novel approaches for access to data or analysis are encouraged. Submissions are encouraged that study fertility, mortality or nuptiality and rely on kinship information such as the availability of different types of relatives, proximity of kin, consanguinity or founder effects.

This symposium will bring together historical demographers, economic historians, sociologists, anthropologists, population geneticists, as well as scholars from other disciplines interested in exchanging the latest scientific knowledge on longevity and effects of kinship on demographic and social behaviour. The conference to be organized by the IUSSP and the University of Utah will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah on 31 October - 1 November, 2005.

The IUSSP Scientific Committee on Historical Demography invites researchers in the field to submit a 200-word abstract and curriculum vitae by February 1, 2005 to Geraldine P. Mineau (gmineau@hci.utah.edu) with a copy to Diana Lane (diana.lane@hci.utah.edu). While participants are encouraged to seek their own funding for travel, the organizers will support the stay in Salt Lake City for all participants and to a very limited extent travel costs. Those who apply for financial assistance for travel should indicate their intention clearly in the cover letter of their application papers at the time of submission by the above deadline. The applicants will be informed of their application status by March 15, 2005.

The conference will be limited to a maximum of 9 contributed papers followed by a workshop. Proceedings or an edited volume will be produced after the seminar. Programme Committee: Geri Mineau, chair (University of Utah) and James Lee (University of Michigan)