Stevan Harrell 
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.

Table of Content

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

About the author

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).