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ABSTRACTThe realization that European family forms are failing to converge as predicted by modernization theory has led many scholars to suspect that the broad regional differences detected by historians persist in the present and are likely to influence future developments. This article outlines some relevant hypotheses prompted by historical studies about the role of family and kinship as sources of social security and analyses the results of comparative work on contemporary Europe, paying special attention to the relative weight of cultural and structural factors. Although differences still appear to predominate over commonalities, it is not inconceivable that in certain important respects European countries might paradoxically converge, owing to the generalized decline of the welfare state, towards forms of welfare provision that are closer to the 'familialistic' models of southern and eastern Europe than to the 'modern' models of Scandinavia and north-western Europe.

This article discusses the 'Mediterranean model' of household formation proposed by Laslett and others in the early 1980s and argues that the notion of a Mediterranean culture area has been used in significantly different ways by family historians and social anthropologists. Drawing its materials mainly from research conducted on Italy, it examines the changing relationships through time between nuptiality and household composition, the extent and structural characteristics of servanthood, and the functions of the family as a welfare agency. It is suggested that some concepts that recent generations of Mediterraneanist anthropologists have tended to question or utterly reject (including female honour) might still prove useful to shed light on a number of perplexing features of family life in Italy and the rest of southern Europe.

The evidence presented in this article shows that from the mid-18th century up to the early 20th century babies and young children tended to have a more favourable mortality experience in the upland regions of the Alpine crescent than in the adjacent hilly and flat areas. Although several explanations have been advanced, most scholars are inclined to believe that the lower levels of infant mortality displayed by the Alpine area were primarily accounted for by climatic and other environmental factors, which made infants less vulnerable to bronchial and pulmonary disease and lessened the risk of gastro-intestinal disorders. The available evidence also shows, however, that broad differences can be detected across major regional subdivisions, infant mortality rates being markedly higher in the Austrian Alps than in the rest of the Alpine area. Such differences appear to be mainly related to regional variations in infant feeding habits. Some specific features of Alpine seasonal patterns of infant mortality are also discussed. This article ends up with a tentative outline of long-term trends in Alpine infant mortality from the poorly recorded period before 1750 up to the 1950s.

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Table of Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction: Recent Advances and Some Open Questions in the Long-term Study of Infant and Child Mortality -- 1. Infant Health and Infant Mortality in Europe: Lessons from the Past and Challenges for the Future -- 2. Assessing Change in Historical Contexts: Childhood Mortality Patterns in Spain during the Demographic Transition -- 3. Differential Mortality Patterns among Infants and Other Young Children: The Experience of England and Wales in the Nineteenth Century -- 4. Gender Mortality Differences from Birth to Puberty, 1887-1940 -- 5. Infant Mortality in French Cities in the Mid-Nineteenth Century -- 6. Urbanization, Infant Mortality and Public Health in Imperial Germany -- 7. Locality or Class? Spatial and Social Differentials in Infant and Child Mortality in England and Wales, 1895-1911 -- 8. Infant Mortality in Greece, 1859-1959: Problems and Research Perspectives -- 9. Life Histories of Lone Parents and Illegitimate Children in Nineteenth-Century Sweden -- 10. Mortality among Illegitimate Children in Mid-Nineteenth-Century The Hague -- 11. Childhood Mortality in High-Risk Groups: Some Methodological Reflections Based on French Experience -- 12. A Special Case of Decline: Levels and Trends of Infant Mortality at Florence's Foundling Hospital, 1750-1950 -- Index.

In this essay, we consider family history as a common field of substantive and theoretical interest shaped by contacts among several disciplines. These disciplines obviously include social history and population studies, but also – and rather prominently – social anthropology. One major component of the growth of family history has been the increasing amount of attention that historians pay to topics such as marriage, kinship, and the family, which have long been of central significance in the anthropological investigation of social structure. On the other hand, anthropologists have become aware of the serious limitations of synchronic, present-oriented field research, and most of them now probably agree that historical analysis is essential if they are to understand social and cultural processes. This realization has gradually changed many anthropologists from reluctant consumers of historical work into active and often quite enthusiastic producers.

ABSTRACT: Northernmost Italy is a land of great ecological variability, providing a natural laboratory for examining the impact of environmental factors on demography and society. A sharp contrast between mountains and plains was reflected in sharp differences in land tenure and social structure. Differences in access to marriage and in household composition between upland and lowland communities are examined and the impact on family life of economic changes occurring over the period 1750–1930 are explored. Environmental factors are found to play a major role in determining the kind of demographic and family patterns that prevailed.

Northernmost Italy is a land of great ecological variability, providing a natural laboratory for examining the impact of environmental factors on demography and society. A sharp contrast between mountains and plains was reflected in sharp differences in land tenure and social structure. Differences in access to marriage and in household composition between upland and lowland communities are examined and the impact on family life of economic changes occurring over the period 1750-1930 are explored. Environmental factors are found to play a major role in determining the kind of demographic and family patterns that prevailed.