“Demography as history”: methods of studying the past
“Demography as history”: methods of studying the past

Summary/Abstract: The article provides specifics to an attempt at theoretical and methodological comprehension of historical and demographic reconstructions in the contexts of both “cliometrics” and “social history”. The characteristics of the specific toolkit are described and the technique of cognitive procedures is revealed. The methodology of demographic research is in line with the typological analysis of microsocial units of human activity (family, clan, community). The review and the description of specific methods are carried out in accordance with the general historiographic experience and the practice of the specific quantitative modelling of the population growth processes in a particular region. These studies are based on the identification and digital processing of formulary sources of the 19th – early 21st centuries. The article proposes a toolkit to improve the external and internal criticism of these types of sources. Special attention is paid to specific historical and demographic methods of identification and interpretation: coefficients, indices, and indicators. We fit them into the contours of historical science and expose their heuristic value and potential. This understanding contributes to the development of additional meanings in the humanities. The tested specific methodology is presented as potential for further extrapolations to sociocultural environments and historical periods. Overall, the paper highlights the issue of the prospects and possibilities of historical and demographic research in the context of studying the past of communities, as well as the issues of mutual influences of social institutions and practices, on the one hand, and population reproduction factors, on the other.

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