Chinese Historical Microdemography

Using local studies to answer global questions, this compilation challenges traditional notions concerning historical Chinese population trends. Genealogies, epitaphs, and household registers are some of the local and primary materials used to examine the important issues of fertility, mortality, family structure, and migration patterns.

Stevan Harrell is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington and coeditor of Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era (California, 1993).

Introduction: Microdemography and the Modeling of Population Process in Late Imperial China
Marriage among the Song Elite
Fertility and Population Growth in the Lineages of Tongcheng County, 1520-1661
A Comparison of Lineage Populations in South China, ca. 1300-1900
Demographic Constraint and Family Structure in Traditional Chinese Lineages, ca. 1200-1900
Marriage, Mortality, and the Developmental Cycle in Three Xiaoshan Lineages
A Century of Mortality in Liaoning
Migration in Two Minnan Lineages in the Ming and Qing Periods