Biomaterial Database

Lack of birth seasonality in a nineteenth-century agricultural population: Escazú, Costa Rica. 1993

L Madrigal

Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa 33620.

Demographic studies repeatedly indicate that human births tend to fluctuate in a seasonal pattern, particularly in agricultural groups. Interestingly, lack of seasonal variation has been infrequently reported. Recently, Arcury et al. (1990) indicated that only one published study identified a population in which no seasonality of births was demonstrated. Here, I report the results of a historical demographic study that investigates whether Escazú, a nineteenth-century population from Costa Rica, experienced birth seasonality. The data set consists of certificates of baptisms from 1851 to 1901 collected at the Parish of San Miguel de Escazú, Costa Rica. The data are an accurate reflection of the actual number of births in the population because even newborn infants who appeared to be in imminent danger of dying (and who subsequently did) were baptized. The baptism series was analyzed by fitting an ARIMA model (0, 1, 1) and cross-correlating it with two climatic series: rainfall and temperature. The autocorrelation analysis of the baptism data fails to demonstrate any cyclical pattern of births in Escazú. Moreover, there is no indication that temperature or rainfall influences the frequency of births. This lack of seasonality is unexpected in an agrarian population such as Ecazú. The results of this analysis indicate that human fertility cycles might not be as prevalent as previously thought.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007226	Infant Mortality	Postnatal deaths from BIRTH to 365 days after birth in a given population. Postneonatal mortality represents deaths between 28 days and 365 days after birth (as defined by National Center for Health Statistics). Neonatal mortality represents deaths from birth to 27 days after birth.	Neonatal Mortality,Mortality, Infant,Postneonatal Mortality,Infant Mortalities,Mortalities, Infant,Mortalities, Neonatal,Mortalities, Postneonatal,Mortality, Neonatal,Mortality, Postneonatal,Neonatal Mortalities,Postneonatal Mortalities
D007231	Infant, Newborn	An infant during the first 28 days after birth.	Neonate,Newborns,Infants, Newborn,Neonates,Newborn,Newborn Infant,Newborn Infants
D012042	Registries	The systems and processes involved in the establishment, support, management, and operation of registers, e.g., disease registers.	Parish Registers,Population Register,Parish Register,Population Registers,Register, Parish,Register, Population,Registers, Parish,Registers, Population,Registry
D001723	Birth Rate	The number of births in a given population per year or other unit of time.	Natality,Age-Specific Birth Rate,Age-Specific Fertility Rate,Fertility Rate,Age Specific Birth Rate,Age Specific Fertility Rate,Age-Specific Birth Rates,Age-Specific Fertility Rates,Birth Rate, Age-Specific,Birth Rates,Fertility Rate, Age-Specific,Fertility Rates,Natalities,Rate, Age-Specific Fertility,Rate, Birth,Rate, Fertility
D002410	Catholicism	The Christian faith, practice, or system of the Catholic Church, specifically the Roman Catholic, the Christian church that is characterized by a hierarchic structure of bishops and priests in which doctrinal and disciplinary authority are dependent upon apostolic succession, with the pope as head of the episcopal college. (From Webster, 3d ed; American Heritage Dictionary, 2d college ed)	Roman Catholic Ethics,Roman Catholicism,Roman Catholics,Catholic, Roman,Catholicism, Roman,Catholics, Roman,Ethic, Roman Catholic,Ethics, Roman Catholic,Roman Catholic,Roman Catholic Ethic
D003364	Costa Rica	A country in CENTRAL AMERICA, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between NICARAGUA and PANAMA.
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000383	Agriculture	The science, art or practice of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock.	Agronomy,Agricultural Development,Farming,Agronomies,Development, Agricultural
D012424	Rural Population	The inhabitants of rural areas or of small towns classified as rural.	Rural Residence,Rural Communities,Rural Spatial Distribution,Communities, Rural,Community, Rural,Distribution, Rural Spatial,Distributions, Rural Spatial,Population, Rural,Populations, Rural,Residence, Rural,Rural Community,Rural Populations,Rural Residences,Rural Spatial Distributions
D012621	Seasons	Divisions of the year according to some regularly recurrent phenomena usually astronomical or climatic. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)	Seasonal Variation,Season,Seasonal Variations,Variation, Seasonal,Variations, Seasonal