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"Thornton, Patricia A."
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Mortality in late nineteenth-century Montreal: Geographic pathways of contagion
In the City of Montreal, 1881, the presence of three cultural communities with different profiles of economic status makes it possible to observe the way social settings affected survival over a lifetime. Regression models show culturally determined maternal factors dominant for infants, and persistent throughout childhood. For post-neonates, children aged 1-4, and adults aged 15-59 household poverty has a comparable effect. Among adults, a gender penalty differs among the three communities. Models are improved when differentiated by cause of death. Locating households using a GIS reveals high levels of residential segregation by ethnicity and income, spatial correlation of environmental hazards, and constraints on exit from zones of risk, which together produce neighbourhood effects as large as household effects. Attention to groups excluded (foundlings and inmates of institutions) confirms that models limited to full household-level information significantly underestimate the impacts of poverty and exclusion.
Journal Article
Family Contexts of Fertility and Infant Survival in Nineteenth-Century Montreal
In the cohort of 4000 infants born in Montreal in 1859, the cultural context showed a powerful influence on infant mortality: more French Canadian infants died in their first year than Protestant or Irish Catholic. Socio-economic status shows no effect on infant mortality, although in each cultural community the wealthy had a higher birth rate than the poor. A higher birth rate to French Canadian mothers can be attributed entirely to the larger number of deaths followed by prompt “replacement.” Among mothers whose infants survived twelve months, all three communities show the same median birth intervals, indicative of a high fertility, apparently regulated by breastfeeding. The summer concentration of infant deaths nevertheless points to diarrheal diseases and differences of infant feeding.
Journal Article
Infant Mortality: A Continuing Social Problem
Thornton reviews Infant Mortality: A Continuing Social Problem edited by Eilidh Garrett, Chris Galley, Nicola Shelton, and Robert Woods.
Book Review
People of the Bays and Headlands: Anthropological History and the Fate of Communities in the Unknown Labrador
Much of this history is not new, but its strength lies in its meticulous detail and how extremely well it is brought together, and brought to life in the context of larger debates. There are no new archival sources used here (except possibly the Newfoundland Ranger Reports) and no original analysis of the data. Nevertheless, there are some new contributions: the role of Inuit women and illicit trade with the Americans in fostering permanent settlement -- the former providing spouses, the latter supplies; and the description of a durable \"Settler\" way of life that involved seasonal transhumance between isolated winter homes in the inner bays (for trapping, firewood, subsistence activities and protection) and larger outer island and headland communities (for seals, salmon and cod for sale). These latter coastal activities often took place alongside visitors from Newfoundland. Finally, the impact of the Grenfell Mission, the Labrador Development Company lumbering operation, and more recently the construction of military bases on these communities and the settler way of life has nowhere else been so clearly documented. In essence he argues, despite strong tendencies towards centralization that these developments set in motion, the people and communities could adapt so long as their ability to exploit the summer fishery and carry out crucial winter subsistence activities such as collecting firewood were not jeopardized.
Book Review