Original scientific paper
Demographic Indicators in the Parish Record of Deaths of the Reformed Parish of Vardarac in the Eighteenth Century
Dubravka Božić Bogović
orcid.org/0000-0001-6979-3908
; Faculty of Philosophy, Osijek, Croatia
Eldina Lovaš
Abstract
Settlement Vardarac is situated in the area of the so called “Baranja Triangle,” in the area between present-day villages of Lug, Bilje and Kopačevo. Historical sources point that it existed as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, and it was inhabited also in the Ottoman period. It seems that the population accepted reformation around 1527. The settlement remained inhabited with Hungarian Calvinist population also after the liberation of the Ottoman rule, that is during the period under research in this article (to the end of the eighteenth century).
Establishing of the demographic indicators in the Parish record of Deaths of the Reformed parish of Vardarac of the eighteenth century is based on the analysis of the data recorded in it with use of usual methods of historical demography. The aim of the article is, by use of quantitative, analytical and descriptive methods, to discuss different elements of biological life of individuals and socially and culturally conditioned demographic characteristics of the population of Vardarac in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The Parish record of deaths of the Reformed parish of Vardarac started to be filled since 1775 and is placed in a collective volume with Parish records of births and of weddings as the last part of the volume. It is written in legible handwriting, and all the records are entered in Hungarian language and cursive humanistic script. Entries follows in chronological order and there is no later added entries.
From the beginning of leading the Parish record of deaths to the end of the eighteenth century, that is during the period of twenty six years, 19,85 persons per year died in average in Vardarac. Number of deaths in particular years is relatively unpredictable and pace of mortality is greater than 30 percent, which is characteristic for pre-transitional societies (including the major part of Croatia of that time and Catholic population of South Baranja). The most of the deaths occurred during colder months of Winter and late Autumn and in the transitional period between the late Winter and early Spring marked by unstable climatic conditions, and seasonal minimum of deaths occurred in Summer. Analysis of the age of the deceased shows that even 58,64 percent of all the inhabitants of Vardarac died within his or her fifteenth year of life. Because of that, the average life expectancy was low and amounted to only 19,85 years; if from the analysis are exempted children who died before the fifth year of age it climbs on 40,74 years. The analysis of demographic characteristics in the Parish record of deaths of the Reformed parish of Vardarac show that its population at the end of the eighteenth century still did not enter into the phase of demographic transition. In that respect, and regarding the fact that its population was traditional and rural, Vardarac generally did not differ from other settlements of South Baranja inhabited with Catholic Croatian and German population.
Keywords
Vardarac; South Baranja; parish records of death; historical demography; the eighteenth century
Hrčak ID:
136442
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2014.
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