Fertility patterns and trends among the Old Order Amish

Ericksen, Julia A.; Ericksen, Eugene P.; Hostetler, John A.; Huntington, Gertrude E.

doi:10.1080/00324728.1979.10410441

Cited by 40 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Completed family live births vary by settlement and twentieth century cohort, but are all high, including 6.33 (Cross and McKusick 1970) , 6.8 (Ericksen, et al 1979), 7.1 (Kraybill 2001), 7.6 (Dorsten 1994), 7.7 (Greksa 2002, and 7.8 (Acheson 1994). Through most of the past century, fertility increased slightly (Cross and McKusick 1970;Ericksen, et al 1979;Markle and Pasco 1977), even experiencing an additional increase during the baby boom (Bailey and Collins 2011), though one large, high birth settlement declined by one child by 1967 (Greksa 2002) and another large settlement experienced a slight decrease among late century cohorts (Dorsten 1999). …”

Section: Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reviving the Demographic Study of the Amish

Colyer¹,

Anderson²,

Stein³

et al. 2017

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

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The Amish exhibit distinctive demographic patterns, notably high fertility. While scholars have studied Amish population dynamics for more than a half century, recent research in this area is limited. We believe the time is ripe to reverse this trend. This article reviews data collection methods, points to a variety of accessible sources of new data, presents some preliminary results from the analysis of one such source (the McKune dataset for Holmes County, Ohio), introduces the research agenda and work of the newly formed Amish Population Research Group, and reviews past demographic findings to situate our agenda. An invitation is extended to demographers, social scientists, health researchers, and others to enter into collaborations with APRG.

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Section: Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the cumbersomeness of data scavenger hunts like those of Smith and Hewner, most (Ericksen, et al 1979). Thereafter, cross-settlement studies withered, that is, until the Anabaptist Genealogy Database emerged.…”

Section: Obtaining Useful Micro Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviving the Demographic Study of the Amish

Colyer¹,

Anderson²,

Stein³

et al. 2017

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

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“…The implication is that the cultural difference between the Amish and their neighbours reflects mostly strong cultural transmission. Unfortunately, previous cultural transmission models of Amish defection proposed by Markle and Pasco (1977), Ericksen et al (1979Ericksen et al ( , 1980, Meyers (1991Meyers ( , 1994, Wasao and Donnermeyer (1996) and Greksa (2002) give only plausibility arguments that are difficult to quantify and falsify. On the other hand, quantitative genetic theory is well established in agriculture and other areas of biology like biometrics and conservation biology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…particularly expensive farm land, and the resulting trade-off between culturally sanctioned high fertility and the ability of families to support their own farms (Markle & Pasco, 1977;Ericksen et al, 1979Ericksen et al, , 1980Wasao & Donnermeyer, 1996). Other models focus on the effects of occupational shifts consequent to economic constraints on farming.…”

Section: Models Of Selection 19mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Amish substitutes for institutional support are primarily mediated through kin networks so extended families bear the emotional and financial burden of the welfare of their members (Hurd, 1983;Hostetler, 1993;Hurst & McConnell, 2010). Children, especially males, rely on kin support to start businesses and farms when they begin their own families (Ericksen et al, 1979(Ericksen et al, , 1980Hurd, 1981;Wasao & Donnermeyer, 1996). Highly fertile Amish mothers draw on relatives to help with their large families (Hewner, 1998;Kraybill, 2001).…”

Section: Endogamymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Some Uses of Models of Quantitative Genetic Selection in Social Science

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Harpending

2016

J. Biosoc. Sci.

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Summary. The theory of selection of quantitative traits is widely used in evolutionary biology, agriculture and other related fields. The fundamental model known as the breeder's equation is simple, robust over short time scales, and it is often possible to estimate plausible parameters. In this paper it is suggested that the results of this model provide useful yardsticks for the description of social traits and the evaluation of transmission models. The differences on a standard personality test between samples of Old Order Amish and Indiana rural young men from the same county and the decline of homicide in Medieval Europe are used as illustrative examples of the overall approach. It is shown that the decline of homicide is unremarkable under a threshold model while the differences between rural Amish and non-Amish young men are too large to be a plausible outcome of simple genetic selection in which assortative mating by affiliation is equivalent to truncation selection.

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Evolution of the human life cycle

1996

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Social mammals have three basic stages of postnatal development: infant, juvenile, and adult. Some species also have a brief female post‐reproductive stage. The human life cycle, however, is best described by five stages: infant, child, juvenile, adolescent, and adult. Women in both traditional and industrial societies may also have a long post‐reproductive stage. Analyses of bones and teeth of early hominids who died as subadults suggest that the evolution of the new life stages of childhood and adolescence are not of ancient origin. The current human pattern evolved after the appearance of Homo erectus. It is possible that evidence for the existence of the post‐reproductive stage for women will also be recoverable from the fossil record because the hormonal changes associated with menopause have profound effects on bone density and histology of tubular bones. It is hypothesized that the new life stages of the human life cycle represent feeding and reproductive specializations of the genus Homo. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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Fertility patterns and trends among the Old Order Amish

Cited by 40 publications

References 3 publications

Reviving the Demographic Study of the Amish

Reviving the Demographic Study of the Amish

Some Uses of Models of Quantitative Genetic Selection in Social Science

Evolution of the human life cycle

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