Prudence and Pressure: Reproduction and Human Agency in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900 by Noriko O. Tsuya, James Z. Lee, Feng Wang, George Alter (Hardcover, 2010)
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.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
James Z. Lee, Feng WANG, Cameron Campbell, Noriko O. Tsuya, Tommy Hilfiger Bengtsson, Satomi Kurosu, MIT Press LTD
ISBN-13
9780262013529
eBay Product ID (ePID)
90786219
Product Key Features
Author
Noriko O. Tsuya, James Z. Lee, Feng Wang, George Alter
Publication Name
Prudence and Pressure: Reproduction and Human Agency in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
Economics
Publication Year
2010
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
406 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
229mm
Item Width
152mm
Item Weight
703g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Noriko O. Tsuya, Feng Wang, George Alter, James Z. Lee