Fertility Patterns and Reproductive Behaviours in the Lutheran and Catholic Populations from Historical Poland

Grażyna Liczbińska

Faculty of Biology, Institute of Anthropology, Umultowska 89, Adam Mickiewicz University,Poznań, Poland.

DOI: 10.4236/aa.2013.33020                 

Abstract

Many variables of biological, ecological and cultural nature affect the biological dynamics of human populations. A religious denomination was an element of the cultural system which had an impact on the attitude towards birth control and sexuality. The aim of this paper is to show how religion shaped the fertility figures in the Catholic and Lutheran populations of historical Poland. Two methods were used to characterize fertility. One uses reconstructed individual histories of families to assess fertility figures on the basis of the length of protogenetic and intergenetic intervals. In the second method fertility measures were estimated from mortality and natural increase data. Using life-table parameters estimated for both stationary and stable population models the following fertility figures were calculated: crude birth rate, net reproductive rate R₀, mean family size, mean birth interval, total fertility rate, and mean age-specific fertility rate. It has been found that the analyzed Catholic and Protestant populations from the territory of historicalPolandwere characterized by a rather high reproductive potential.

Keywords

Protogenetic and Intergenetic Intervals; Partial Fertility Rate; Relative Cumulative Number of Births; Life Table Biometric Functions; Seasonality of Conceptions and Births

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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