Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe

Historically, mothers producing twins gave birth, on average, more often than non-twinners. This observation has been interpreted as twinners having higher intrinsic fertility - a tendency to conceive easily irrespective of age and other factors - which has shaped both hypotheses about why twinning persists and varies across populations, and the design of medical studies on female fertility. Here we show in >20k pre-industrial European mothers that this interpretation results from an ecological fallacy: twinners had more births not due to higher intrinsic fertility, but because mothers that gave birth more accumulated more opportunities to produce twins. Controlling for variation in the exposure to the risk of twinning reveals that mothers with higher twinning propensity - a physiological predisposition to producing twins - had fewer births, and when twin mortality was high, fewer offspring reaching adulthood. Twinning rates may thus be driven by variation in its mortality costs, rather than variation in intrinsic fertility

“The Lapps are used like camels in distant lands":Sámi research in the northernmost parsonage of Finnish Lapland

Abstract Anders Andelin was a Finnish clergyman who engaged in Sámi research in the northernmost parsonage of Finland in the 1850s. His efforts were not exceptional, as the residents of 19th century European rural parsonages practiced a lot of research. Andelin himself was an amateur ethnographer, historian, archaeologist, meteorologist, geographer, natural scientist, linguist, and toponymist. He was, as a Sámi researcher, between old and new scientific traditions: The middle of the nineteenth century has been regarded as a turning point in the history of academic research in Finland. Until then, researchers collected folklore, historical sources, plants, and meteorological observations. Around the 1850s the focus shifted from collecting and listing towards more analytical and experimental research. Andelin published his writings in scientific journals but also compiled a lot of detailed information related to the Sámi people, as the Sámi were thought to be a primitive people heading towards extinction. The clergymen who came to Lapland also viewed the Sámi lands through the lens of cultivation. They gathered statistics, which could be used to justify the need for the efforts of agriculture in Lapland

Misjon og utdanning blant samer i 1800-tallets Finland

Abstract This article discusses the Lutheran state church’s educational mission to the Sámi in 19th century Finnish Lapland. An ethnic and linguistic minority group living in the Finnish borderlands, the Sámi have functioned as the ‘internal other’ for Finns. Eventually, they became targets of an education policy that sought to implement a form of civilizing mission. While legislation regulated Christian education of the Sámi in the 19th century, individual practices depended on the activities of individual clergymen involved. While some focused on making the Sámi literate with the help of reading primers, others thought civilization could be introduced by way of founding lending libraries. Yet another wanted to hire a former Finnish missionary who had previously worked in Namibia to teach the Sámi. In Lapland, the Finnish clergymen worked closely with Sámi teachers (catechists), who functioned as cultural brokers between Finnish and Sámi cultures. The Finnish government adopted a new policy towards ethnic minorities in the 1840s. When it was discovered that Finnish was one of the language minorities in the large Russian Empire, the Finns began to treat the Sámi language and culture in the same way as they wanted Russia to treat Finnish language and culture. Therefore, during the latter half of the 19th century, Sámi parents were no longer obliged to teach Finnish to their children. In addition, those Utsjoki and Inari clergymen who learned to speak the “dialect” of the Sámi language in their parishes, were given better salaries. The status of the language reached new heights in the first years of the 20th century, when the bishop of the Kuopio Diocese J. R. Forsman, learned Sámi so he could preach to the Sámi in their own language during his visitation to Utsjoki in 1902. During this time, Sámi Christianity stood very strong, especially compared to the rest of Finland. In the Utsjoki parish, bishop Forsman was especially impressed with the Christian knowledge and skills of the young Sámi parishioners. The article compares the education in Finnish Lapland with the education of the Sámi in Sweden and Norway, and also with missionary education in some mission fields outside Europe

The geography of Arctic food:the northern environment and Sámi health in transition, c. 1750–1950

Abstract This chapter examines the geography of Arctic food by focusing on food production and food consumption in the Arctic environment of Finnish Lapland. The research reaches from the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, focusing on the border region between Finland and Norway, especially the Sámi area of Utsjoki. Food is strongly associated with human rights such as the right to a healthy environment. During past centuries, this right has often been questionable for the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. The question of the right to food is linked to the question of the right to land — by taking over or restricting the use of the land, states have also taken over traditional food and livelihoods. However, the Sámi of the past centuries were not without opportunities. The Utsjoki Sámi were active traders, and they imported many kinds of foods into the Sámi area. The research ends in the years of the Second World War, which posed significant challenges to the Sámi peoples’ nutrition, health and environment

Saami Educational and Knowledge Claims in School Systems of the Nordic Countries

Peer reviewe

Reply to: Maternal capacity, twinning and fertility: the last birth matters

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recor

Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe

Historically, mothers producing twins gave birth, on average, more often than non-twinners. This observation has been interpreted as twinners having higher intrinsic fertility – a tendency to conceive easily irrespective of age and other factors – which has shaped both hypotheses about why twinning persists and varies across populations, and the design of medical studies on female fertility. Here we show in >20k pre-industrial European mothers that this interpretation results from an ecological fallacy: twinners had more births not due to higher intrinsic fertility, but because mothers that gave birth more accumulated more opportunities to produce twins. Controlling for variation in the exposure to the risk of twinning reveals that mothers with higher twinning propensity – a physiological predisposition to producing twins – had fewer births, and when twin mortality was high, fewer offspring reaching adulthood. Twinning rates may thus be driven by variation in its mortality costs, rather than variation in intrinsic fertility

Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe

Abstract Historically, mothers producing twins gave birth, on average, more often than non-twinners. This observation has been interpreted as twinners having higher intrinsic fertility — a tendency to conceive easily irrespective of age and other factors — which has shaped both hypotheses about why twinning persists and varies across populations, and the design of medical studies on female fertility. Here we show in >20k pre-industrial European mothers that this interpretation results from an ecological fallacy: twinners had more births not due to higher intrinsic fertility, but because mothers that gave birth more accumulated more opportunities to produce twins. Controlling for variation in the exposure to the risk of twinning reveals that mothers with higher twinning propensity — a physiological predisposition to producing twins — had fewer births, and when twin mortality was high, fewer offspring reaching adulthood. Twinning rates may thus be driven by variation in its mortality costs, rather than variation in intrinsic fertility