Positive or Preventive? : Reproduction in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1940

Contents......Page 5 1 Introduction: Malthusian realities / Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf......Page 8 2 Quantifying the colonized: The History and Significance of Demographic Sources from Colonial Taiwan / Paul R. Katz & Chiu Cheng-lueh......Page 20 3 Sources for the historical demography of the Netherlands in the 19th and early 20th centuries / Jan Kok......Page 42 4 Two ethnographies of reproduction / Hill Gates & Marloes Schoonheim......Page 54 5 Burden or opportunity? Illegitimate births in the Netherlands and Taiwan / Hill Gates, Jan Kok & Sping Wang......Page 82 6 Fertility four ways: Dutch urban and rural and Taiwanese urban and rural / Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf......Page 108 7 Group identity and fertility: An evaluation of the role of religion and ethnicity in the Netherlands and Taiwan / John Shepherd, Pan Inghai, Jan Kok, Claudia Engel, Theo Engelen & Melissa Brown......Page 122 8 Fertility and infant and early childhood mortality: Some lessons on stopping behavior from Taiwanese and Dutch cases / John R. Shepherd, Jan Kok & HsiehYing-hui......Page 164 9 Marital fertility and birth control in rural Netherlands andTaiwan, 19th and early 20th centuries / Jan Kok, Yang Wen-shan & Hsieh Ying-hui......Page 200 10 Malthus on China: A brief for the received view / Arthur P. Wolf & Theo Engelen......Page 238 Bibliography......Page 264 This book adresses an important issue in historical demography - the differences between reproduction in low pressure and high pressure demographic regimes. The existence of such differences was first noted in 1789 by Thomas Malthus when he contrasted the low pressure European regimes with the high pressure regimes found in the less civilized parts of the world, most notably China and Japan. This contrast, long taken as fundamental by historical demographers, has recently been challenged by authors who argue that it should be discarded as Malthusian mythology. The papers included here evaluate the received and revisionist views by comparing reproduction in a high pressure regime - Taiwan during the Japanese occupation - and a low pressure regime - the Netherlands in the years 1830-1920. The papers examine the impact of infant mortality, social class, ethnic identity, illegitimacy, form of marriage, and rural vs. urban settings. Reality or mythology?, that is the question