Suchergebnisse

This study submits to our attention some qualitative and quantitative aspects related to urban and semi urban habitat from the former Arad County in the eighteenth century. If in 1715 there were 6 market towns, at the end of the century were already 15. Based on the conscriptions, urbariums and census, I have tried to detect the evolution of market towns during the entire eighteenth century. Reform policy of the Habsburg absolutism has determined even an economic and demographic increase in the market towns of Arad County. Between those 15 market towns of the county existing in 1787 only Arad had obvious urban characteristics. Here was concentrated 6.15% of the county population. By comparison with other counties from Transylvania and Hungary, I have pursued to dignify and quantify different aspects of the urbanization degree in the Arad County registered in the eighteenth century. The development of market towns in Arad County has had the same evolution with those of Central and Eastern Europe, because the agrarian character of these localities was predominant. The evolution towards urbanization was evident along the eighteenth century both in terms of population growth and a great social mobility and also in light of the economic and municipal development. The transformations in the direction of modernization registered during the eighteenth century were the basement of the future process of urbanization of Arad County in the century that has followed.

The socio-professional element in marital options was extremely reduced taking into account that we have considered a rural area almost in its entirety. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, this world used to have a strong traditional propensity with a low number of professional options, as most inhabitants were mainly involved in agriculture. As a consequence, when speaking about the socio-professional determinism in choosing a marriage partner, we have to take into account the fact that most youth getting married had mostly rural professions. On the other hand, the socio-professional element was more active in urban area and in the environment dominated by Roman-Catholic or Reformed population.
The social and professional status undoubtedly had an important role in achieving and settling a family despite the reduced number of options. Personal emancipation and socio-professional status had a determining influence on choosing a partner. The phenomenon was more obvious in the city and towards the beginning of the 20th century in other rural places, where the traditional left room to a process of socio-economic modernisation under the influence of the increasing number of non-agricultural activities. As one can easily anticipate, these changes led to new mental perceptions and hence to a new reaction of the community. Deep changes could be noticed as this area joined an economic circuit leading to new mutations in several economic sectors. Economic development and the spreading of non-agricultural activities associated to urban development whose influence was ever growing entailed changes in family relations. There were also mutations in family relations, domestic group and household resources. These changes were not yet visible in all places in the region: some were still anchored in the traditional where the new had a hard time to penetrate, while major changes on the level of the collective mental could not be seized during the time we analysed.
The large scale analysis of the phenomenon has led to the conclusion that where there were better socio-professional options, their determinism on marriage could be identified as highly important. How can we determine the way in which the socio-professional element influenced marriage? To what extent a young man with a superior social and professional status had more marital options? To what extent other "constraints" (confession, ethnie, civil status, age, etc.) were less important when facing strong socio-professional determinism? More precisely, was a man with a superior socio-professional status wanted by many young women despite old age, his civil status as a widower or a divorcee, of if he had a different confession or ethnie? To identify the mechanism of this determinism, we suggest a more complex analysis where the socio-professional element should be corroborated with other marriage determinisms or constraints. From these premises, we will attempt to make a methodological analysis of the socio-professional status from three points of view: ethno-confessional element, civil status and age of partners.

The study "Population and habitat on the feudal domain Şiria at the beginning of the XVIth century" is based on a statistical document developed in 1525. We have many and very important information on the people's one of the largest feudal domain in Transylvania in the middle Ages. The 8152 inhabitants, where nearly 90% for them is represented by serfs, live in 121 villages scattered over an area large enough in the old county of Zarand. The predominantly landform is mountain. The majority of the 121 villages, 76% more accurate, have up to 80`s inhabitants, so they are relative small villages. Yet some localities are also somewhat larger – market towns - which have between 184 and 460 inhabitants. Finally, we can see that the old type of habitat is preserved up to the present day with few changes and 70 villages from them exist in our days on the territory of the counties Arad and Hunedoara.

The family, its formation, the relationships between man, woman, children and relatives, as well as the relationships with the rest of the community were filtered by the "village gossip". The need for a strong solidarity that was necessary in the unfriendly conditions at the time compelled the individuals to accept the cohabitation with other members of the family (including the extended one) and with the rest of the community. More often than not, the individual behaviour acquired the expression of the collective behaviour. Such an influence of the community was obvious in the traditional rural societies. However, in time, it became progressively diluted under the pressure of modernity.
We can see that there were deep changes as the area integrated to an economic circuit that would lead to imposing new mutations in several economic sectors. The economic development and the dissemination of non-agricultural activities associated to urban development whose influence went growing brought about alterations in the family relations. Then, there were mutations in the relationship between the family, the domestic group and the household resources. These changes were not obvious in all localities in the region: some of them were still anchored in the traditional as the new managed to penetrate more difficultly, while major changes on the level of the collective mental could not be perceived on a short span of time. Nevertheless, under the influence of modernity, society influenced the family not only in point of form, but also insofar as its role and functions were concerned. Mentalities changed together with the form and nature of society. Family was no longer big; it did no longer accept the interference of the relatives and even less that of the community. Changes were more visible in the city; however, once the social, cultural and economic changes, they became obvious in the countryside too. The nuclear family was the new family model where interference from the outside was insignificant.

Our study, as we intend it, upon the vulnerability when confronted with death and death rate is structured as a research which is closed to classical historical demography but without neglecting the particularities and individualities of this phenomenon. We are interested both in the general tendencies and in the specific ones. This being our intention, we will try to catch both the phenomenon of regional mortality and the event of death in the many families we have studied during this research work.
The profound economic crisis of this period in the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy together with the epidemics (we have in view especially the 1872-1873 cholera and its prolongation) exercise a strong demographic pressure that brings to our attention mainly the vulnerability of these communities. Towards the end of the analyzed period we can notice a certain decrease in the rate of mortality in the two counties, values that are close to the average ones in the counties of Transylvania. These tendencies may be caused by the remarkable progress in the field of medical assistance, progress that indicates more and more rare strong zones of high mortality. The diminishing of the death rate in the two counties was due to a clear progress recorded by the urban communities of Oradea and Satu Mare.