Aspects of the birthrate in Midwestern paulista settlement, 19th century

Abstract

This work approaches the aspects of birth rate in a frontier territory. The west region of São Paulo Province, in its area delimitated by the Tietê and the Paranapanema rivers, was the frontier of the settlement during great part of the nineteenth century. The analysis from the parish and registry office in Lençóes (a city in Brazil) allowed us to mark out a family description in the frontier. Through this, we can see that the illegitimacy was low, smaller rather than in other areas that were used as a parameter, going against what people could expect from a frontier area. The baptisms used to take place in a large quantity at the end of the year (November and December), followed by the initial month, January. There weren t marked seasonal variations related to the baptisms, although October, February and March were the months with less occurrence. While Sunday was the preferred day by the parents for such a ceremony, concentrating approximately a third of them, Friday was a day to be avoided.