6 The early New England pattern in age-heaping showed a bias toward youth in early adulthood, and bias toward old age in the later years of life. The transition occurred in the fifties. This differed from age heaping in the 19th and 20th centuries (youth bias throughout), and as we shall see, from other colonial cultures. Three New England samples show the following trends:
|
Essex County, Mass. |
Middlesex County, Mass. |
New Haven, Conn. |
|
Depositions |
Depositions |
Census |
|
1636-72 |
1661-75 |
1787 |
Age |
(n = 4106) |
(n = 251) |
(n = 5085) |
29 |
|
|
|
30 |
|
|
|
31 |
|
|
|
39 |
|
|
|
40 |
|
|
|
41 |
|
|
|
49 |
|
|
|
50 |
|
|
|
51 |
|
|
|
59 |
|
|
|
60 |
|
|
|
61 |
|
|
|
69 |
|
|
|
70 |
|
|
|
71 |
|
|
|
For any given age cohort these data can be converted into a single age-heaping ratio which measures the relative strength and direction of bias in age-reporting. Where no net bias exists, the ratio is 1.0; that is, the same proportion of people are distorting their ages up and down, toward age and youth. Where a youth bias exists, the age-heaping ratio falls below 1.0; a bias toward old causes the ratio to rise above 1.0.
Age |
Essex Co. (1636-72) |
Middlesex Co. (1661-75) |
New Haven(1787) |
New England (Mean) |
U.S. (1950) |
29-31 |
|
|
|
|
|
39-41 |
|
|
|
|
|
49-51 |
|
|
|
|
|
59-61 |
|
|
|
|
|
69-71 |
|
|
|
|
|
Sources: Carol Shuchman, “Examining Life Expectancies in Seventeenth Century Massachusetts” (Unpub. paper, Brandeis, 1976); unpub. data furnished by John Demos; Fischer, Growing Old in America, 85; Ansley J. Coale and Melvin Zelnick, New Estimates of Fertility and Population in the United States (Princeton, 1963), 127-28.
When this test was invented by the author as an empirical indicator of age-bias, American historians and social scientists responded with expressions of incomprehension and disbelief; but European historians replicated the test and obtained similar results; see David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Tuscans and Their Families (New Haven, 1985), 169-81; for sources, methods and equations see Fischer, Growing Old in America, 85ff; data for the United States in 1950 are from Ansley J. Coale and Melvin Zelnik, New Estimates of Fertility and Population in the United States (Princeton, 1963), 90-138.