Arthur P Wolf
Biographic Data
| ID | 92487 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arthur P Wolf |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arthur P |
| FAMILY NAME | Wolf |
| SIGNATURE | WOLF A P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stanford University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 342 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1931 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Incest Prohibition, Origin and Evolution of
Fertility and Fertility Control in Pre-Revolutionary China
A revisionist view argues that despite early and nearly universal marriage, fertility in pre-Revolutionary China was no higher than in Europe because of deliberate control within marriage. The evidence, however, confirms the received view: Because of early and universal marriage, fertility in China was far higher than that in Europe and would have been even higher had it not been for what Thomas Malthus called "positive checks." Little or no deli…
Historical Atlases
Journal Article Historical Atlases: The First Three Hundred Years, 1570–1870 Get access Historical Atlases: The First Three Hundred Years, 1570–1870, by Walter Goffart (Chicago: U. of Chicago P., 2003; pp. xxiii + 603. $65). Armin Wolf Armin Wolf Frankfurt-am-Main Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXXI, Issue 491, April 2006, Page 615, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cel072 …
Marriage in Taipei City
The only pre-1950 Chinese cities for which reliable demographic records exist are those in Taiwan. Analysis of two samples of the records from Taipei City produces surprising results. Urban women were far less likely to marry than rural women and consequently had markedly lower fertility. This was due to a greater demand for female labor in the city but not because employment outside of the home freed women to refuse marriages arranged by their p…
Maternal Sentiments
It has long been assumed, by scientists and laymen alike, that mothers naturally bond with their children and find it painful to part with them if forced to do so. This assumption is challenged here with evidence showing that in Taiwan women willingly gave away the great majority of their daughters as infants or small children. They did so as part of a strategy for securing their own future, but they were not compelled to so by poverty or by thei…
Is There Evidence of Birth Control in Late Imperial China
In recent publications James Lee, Wang Feng, Cameron Campbell, and Zhongwei Zhao argue-contrary to what has long been the view of most sinologists-that people in late imperial China deliberately controlled their fertility through a combination of late starting, early stopping, and long spacing. The present article challenges this argument and the data offered in its support. It attempts to show that though they did not want as many children as po…
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society
Modeling Chinese Marriage Regimes
In some parts of China people commonly raised their sons' wives. In other parts they rarely did so. This article compares evidence from two widely separated localities and suggests that the frequency of marriages involving home-raised daughters-in-law was correlated with the age at which these girls entered their future husband's household and the extent to which the practice was class related. It also suggests that this correlation was the produ…
Sexual Attraction and Childhood Association
Sexual Attraction and Childhood Association
In 1891, the anthropologist Edward Westermarck proposed that early childhood association inhibits sexual attraction and that this aversion was manifested in custom and law as the basis of the universal incest taboo. Then, in 1910, in the essays later published as Totem and Taboo, Sigmund Freud challenged the "Westermarck hypothesis" on the ground that "the earliest sexual excitations of youthful human beings are invariably of an incestuous charac…
Marriage in Taiwan, 1881-1905 An Example of Regional Diversity
Sinologists have long agreed that many aspects of Chinese culture vary widely from region to region and even from valley to valley and town to town. The question for contemporary scholars is why and with what consequences. The problem we face is that while evidence from widely scattered communities is adequate to demonstrate the fact of regional diversity, it is not adequate to test hypotheses concerning its causes and consequences. What we need …
Fertility and Women's Labour
In northern Taiwan (as in many other places in South China) two Chinese populations with distinct traditions lived side by side. In one group, the Hokkien, women bound their feet and never worked in the fields; in the other, the Hakka, they did not bind their feet and worked in the fields as men did. Data drawn from household registers for the period 1905–1980 are used to test two hypotheses which argued that women's participation in productive l…
Westermarck Redivivus
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
Family and Population in East Asian History
Family and Population in East Asian History
China's One-Child Policy
The Preeminent Role of Government Intervention in China's Family Revolution
This article argues that changes in family patterns in China are largely a result of direct government intervention rather than an inevitable byproduct of industrialization urbanization and other forms of modern social change. The author bases his argument on temporal trends and regional variations in fertility and marriage. The data indicate a close correlation between abrupt shifts in the fertility rate and reversals in official population poli…
Family and population in East Asian history
"Based on a conference sponsored by the joint committees on Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council.".
Fertility in Prerevolutionary Rural China
This paper challenges the conclusion reached in a recent reanalysis by Barclay et al. (Population Index 1976) of John Lossing Bucks 1929-31 survey of farm families in seven provinces of China that fertility in prerevolutionary rural China was at a moderate level compared with the fertility of other noncontracepting agrarian societies. It is argued here that the Buck survey sample was not representative of China that the means by which the data we…
Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945
Chinese Family and Kinship
Marriage and adoption in China, 1845-1945
Studies in Chinese Society
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society
Sexual Attraction and Childhood Association
In 1891, the anthropologist Edward Westermarck proposed that early childhood association inhibits sexual attraction and that this aversion was manifested in custom and law as the basis of the universal incest taboo. Then, in 1910, in the essays later published as Totem and Taboo, Sigmund Freud challenged the "Westermarck hypothesis" on the ground that "the earliest sexual excitations of youthful human beings are invariably of an incestuous charac…
Childhood Association, Sexual Attraction, and the Incest Taboo
Whereas most sociological and biological explanations of the incest taboo assume that intimate childhood association enhances sexual attraction, most psychological explanations assume that such association depresses it. In northern Taiwan one of several forms of marriage involves the introduction of the bride into her future husband's home as an infant; bride and groom are then raised as members of the same family, experiencing a prolonged period…
Marriage and adoption in China, 1845-1945
Adopt a Daughter-in-Law, Marry a Sister
In stressing the social advantages of the familial incest taboo, most explanations of the taboo ignore the fact that it makes marriage the enemy of the family. The stranger intruded by marriage often poses a threat to existing domestic relationships. The Chinese solution to this problem is to circumvent the taboo by adopting female children who are raised as wives for their foster parents' sons. The family choosing this form of marriage sacrifice…
Childhood Association and Sexual Attraction
A preliminary study of household registration records from Taiwan supports Edward Westermarck's contention that intimate childhood association promotes sexual aversion. Women who are forced to marry a childhood associate bear fewer children than those who marry a stranger. They are also more likely to leave their husband by divorce or avoid him in favor of other men. This evidence suggests that the incest taboo does not prohibit what men's feelin…
Westermarck Redivivus
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
The Preeminent Role of Government Intervention in China's Family Revolution
This article argues that changes in family patterns in China are largely a result of direct government intervention rather than an inevitable byproduct of industrialization urbanization and other forms of modern social change. The author bases his argument on temporal trends and regional variations in fertility and marriage. The data indicate a close correlation between abrupt shifts in the fertility rate and reversals in official population poli…
Is There Evidence of Birth Control in Late Imperial China
In recent publications James Lee, Wang Feng, Cameron Campbell, and Zhongwei Zhao argue-contrary to what has long been the view of most sinologists-that people in late imperial China deliberately controlled their fertility through a combination of late starting, early stopping, and long spacing. The present article challenges this argument and the data offered in its support. It attempts to show that though they did not want as many children as po…
Studies in Chinese Society
Marriage in Taiwan, 1881-1905 An Example of Regional Diversity
Sinologists have long agreed that many aspects of Chinese culture vary widely from region to region and even from valley to valley and town to town. The question for contemporary scholars is why and with what consequences. The problem we face is that while evidence from widely scattered communities is adequate to demonstrate the fact of regional diversity, it is not adequate to test hypotheses concerning its causes and consequences. What we need …
Maternal Sentiments
It has long been assumed, by scientists and laymen alike, that mothers naturally bond with their children and find it painful to part with them if forced to do so. This assumption is challenged here with evidence showing that in Taiwan women willingly gave away the great majority of their daughters as infants or small children. They did so as part of a strategy for securing their own future, but they were not compelled to so by poverty or by thei…
Fertility in Prerevolutionary Rural China
This paper challenges the conclusion reached in a recent reanalysis by Barclay et al. (Population Index 1976) of John Lossing Bucks 1929-31 survey of farm families in seven provinces of China that fertility in prerevolutionary rural China was at a moderate level compared with the fertility of other noncontracepting agrarian societies. It is argued here that the Buck survey sample was not representative of China that the means by which the data we…
Fertility and Women's Labour
In northern Taiwan (as in many other places in South China) two Chinese populations with distinct traditions lived side by side. In one group, the Hokkien, women bound their feet and never worked in the fields; in the other, the Hakka, they did not bind their feet and worked in the fields as men did. Data drawn from household registers for the period 1905–1980 are used to test two hypotheses which argued that women's participation in productive l…
Family and Population in East Asian History
Fertility and Fertility Control in Pre-Revolutionary China
A revisionist view argues that despite early and nearly universal marriage, fertility in pre-Revolutionary China was no higher than in Europe because of deliberate control within marriage. The evidence, however, confirms the received view: Because of early and universal marriage, fertility in China was far higher than that in Europe and would have been even higher had it not been for what Thomas Malthus called "positive checks." Little or no deli…
Modeling Chinese Marriage Regimes
In some parts of China people commonly raised their sons' wives. In other parts they rarely did so. This article compares evidence from two widely separated localities and suggests that the frequency of marriages involving home-raised daughters-in-law was correlated with the age at which these girls entered their future husband's household and the extent to which the practice was class related. It also suggests that this correlation was the produ…
Five Types of Ethical Theory
Childhood Association, Sexual Attraction, and the Incest Taboo
Whereas most sociological and biological explanations of the incest taboo assume that intimate childhood association enhances sexual attraction, most psychological explanations assume that such association depresses it. In northern Taiwan one of several forms of marriage involves the introduction of the bride into her future husband's home as an infant; bride and groom are then raised as members of the same family, experiencing a prolonged period…
Adopt a Daughter-in-Law, Marry a Sister
In stressing the social advantages of the familial incest taboo, most explanations of the taboo ignore the fact that it makes marriage the enemy of the family. The stranger intruded by marriage often poses a threat to existing domestic relationships. The Chinese solution to this problem is to circumvent the taboo by adopting female children who are raised as wives for their foster parents' sons. The family choosing this form of marriage sacrifice…
Childhood Association and Sexual Attraction
A preliminary study of household registration records from Taiwan supports Edward Westermarck's contention that intimate childhood association promotes sexual aversion. Women who are forced to marry a childhood associate bear fewer children than those who marry a stranger. They are also more likely to leave their husband by divorce or avoid him in favor of other men. This evidence suggests that the incest taboo does not prohibit what men's feelin…
The Chinese Red Army
Emigration and the Chinese Lineage
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society
Studies in Chinese Society
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society
Marriage and adoption in China, 1845-1945
Chinese Family and Kinship
Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945
Fertility in Prerevolutionary Rural China
This paper challenges the conclusion reached in a recent reanalysis by Barclay et al. (Population Index 1976) of John Lossing Bucks 1929-31 survey of farm families in seven provinces of China that fertility in prerevolutionary rural China was at a moderate level compared with the fertility of other noncontracepting agrarian societies. It is argued here that the Buck survey sample was not representative of China that the means by which the data we…
Family and population in East Asian history
"Based on a conference sponsored by the joint committees on Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council.".
The Preeminent Role of Government Intervention in China's Family Revolution
This article argues that changes in family patterns in China are largely a result of direct government intervention rather than an inevitable byproduct of industrialization urbanization and other forms of modern social change. The author bases his argument on temporal trends and regional variations in fertility and marriage. The data indicate a close correlation between abrupt shifts in the fertility rate and reversals in official population poli…
China's One-Child Policy
Family and Population in East Asian History
Family and Population in East Asian History
Westermarck Redivivus
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
Fertility and Women's Labour
In northern Taiwan (as in many other places in South China) two Chinese populations with distinct traditions lived side by side. In one group, the Hokkien, women bound their feet and never worked in the fields; in the other, the Hakka, they did not bind their feet and worked in the fields as men did. Data drawn from household registers for the period 1905–1980 are used to test two hypotheses which argued that women's participation in productive l…
Sexual Attraction and Childhood Association
In 1891, the anthropologist Edward Westermarck proposed that early childhood association inhibits sexual attraction and that this aversion was manifested in custom and law as the basis of the universal incest taboo. Then, in 1910, in the essays later published as Totem and Taboo, Sigmund Freud challenged the "Westermarck hypothesis" on the ground that "the earliest sexual excitations of youthful human beings are invariably of an incestuous charac…
Marriage in Taiwan, 1881-1905 An Example of Regional Diversity
Sinologists have long agreed that many aspects of Chinese culture vary widely from region to region and even from valley to valley and town to town. The question for contemporary scholars is why and with what consequences. The problem we face is that while evidence from widely scattered communities is adequate to demonstrate the fact of regional diversity, it is not adequate to test hypotheses concerning its causes and consequences. What we need …
Sexual Attraction and Childhood Association
Modeling Chinese Marriage Regimes
In some parts of China people commonly raised their sons' wives. In other parts they rarely did so. This article compares evidence from two widely separated localities and suggests that the frequency of marriages involving home-raised daughters-in-law was correlated with the age at which these girls entered their future husband's household and the extent to which the practice was class related. It also suggests that this correlation was the produ…
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society
Sociology (18 works) · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences (17 works) · China (14 works) · Political science (12 works) · History (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Demography (8 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (8 works)