Alan Macfarlane Macfarlane is an anthropologist and historian He is from Britain, but was born in India in 1941 He received his M.A. and D.Phil from Worcester College, Oxford

Macfarlane’s Career He was a lecturer of social anthropology at the University of Cambridge from He became professor of anthropological science in 1991 In 1981 he was appointed a fellow at King’s College, Cambridge

Macfarlane’s Career He was with the Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge University for 34 years and is now an Emeritus Professor and Life Fellow His first publication called ‘Population Crisis: Anthropology’s Failure’ was published in 1968

Macfarlane’s Career His article ‘Demographic Structures and Cultural Regions in Europe’ was published in 1981 Some of his work is still being translated into other languages but his publishing career stopped around

Demographic Structures and Cultural Regions in Europe Published in 1981 by Cambridge Anthropology In his article Macfarlane looks at the relationship between demography and the modern world

Main Arguments His main argument is to show how ‘culture,’ referring specifically to demography(birth, marriage, and death), had an effect on shaping modern Europe To support his argument he uses Hajnal’s theory: a line separates Europe into east and west and this line creates different marriage and birth patterns

Main Arguments He also uses the recent theory that there is also a line that separates Europe into north and south North of the line households were closer and smaller while in the south families were bigger and extended

Summary of Article Macfarlane uses these two theories to examine different regions and explain why some areas had differing rates in births, marriages, and deaths Throughout the article he also explores the relationship between demography and economy, politics, and technology

Summary of Article So while Macfarlane presents many good arguments it is still hard to determine exactly what key factor contributes to differing demography in Europe.