Different household formation systems in Hungary at the end of the eighteenth century: variations on John Hajnal's thesis.

Abstract

"John Hajnal's pathbreaking paper about the European marriage patterns and his household formation theory provoked high interest [among] researchers even far beyond the border of the historical demographic research. Examining them through the Hungarian sources we can say that both the declared factors and variables of household formation and their regional strength and territorial distribution cannot be interpreted unanimously and adequately with the rules established by John Hajnal. Maybe it is better not to think in universalistic regimes but, moreover, adapt a regional and temporal frame of reference."