Eugenia Bournova

Reconstructing birth trends in the Greek capital during the first half of the twentieth century remains a difficult undertaking. The two principal factors in this difficulty are the poor state of preservation of the civil registry records, and the frequent changes in the delimitation of Athens and its conurbation. Yet it is precisely during this period that Athens experienced a growth so rapid that its population came to account for a third of the total Greek population. The first part of this article traces the changes in the number of births, often using secondary sources (numerous doctors, who had trained in Western Europe, left behind valuable statistical reports). It clearly shows that inconsistencies in the registration of births (including the lack of systematic registration prior to 1930) and continual expansion of the city’s limits, often renders the data—particularly the birth rate statistics— inconsistent and even implausible. The second part examines the significant chan...

This article deals with the transformation of the public health system in Crete at the turn of the century, when the island was placed under the protection of the European Powers. Cretan archives, especially those from the town of Rethimno, provide a wealth of information on this subject. They show that the new ruling powers, with the declared objective of safeguarding their soldiers, required local authorities to keep a close watch over epidemics, indeed to lock up populations considered dangerous for public health, such as lepers and prostitutes--who did not fail to put up a strong resistance. While providing equipment for hospital facilities, which were still primitive, the Powers also introduced legislation concerning the practice of medicine, from which Muslim Cretans were gradually excluded. The rate at which medical care was provided increased markedly at the beginning of the twentieth century, in particular in the principal towns. The Rethimno notarial archives reveal that t...

In the nineteenth-century, the newly established Greek State attempted to develop modern services, partly based on the relevant French patterns and models, in order to better understand the evolution of the Greek population: the aim was to monitor the population's natural movement and to undertake censuses at regular intervals. However, the low cultural level of clergymen and regional administrators seriously hindered this attempt and led to a more or less deficient maintenance of the archives. The reconstitution of the evolution of the population of Athens and of the broader region of Attica and Biotia during the second half of the 19th century was further impeded by the instability of the municipal administrative structures. At the middle of the century, Athens, the new capital, was a small city of 40,000 residents and Piraeus no more than a town of 6,500 residents. By 1896, the population of Athens had tripled while that of Piraeus had increased fivefold. The natural movement...

Η μελέτη αυτή, μέσα από πηγές που δεν είναι διαθέσιμες στο κοινό ή προσβάσιμες για την συγκεκριμένη περίοδο (ληξιαρχικές πράξεις και δημοτολόγιο αλλά και εμπορικά λογιστικά βιβλία), έχει την ίδια φιλοδοξία με μια μονογραφία χωριού της εποχής του Παλαιού Συστήματος ή με μια σύγχρονη μονογραφία αγροτικής κοινωνιολογίας . Οι μεθοδολογίες που δανείστηκε αυτή η μελέτη στηρίζονται τόσο στο έργο του Pierre Goubert, που ξανάδωσε ζωή στους αγρότες του Beauvaisis αναβιώνοντας "νεκρές" πηγές , όσο και στο έργο του Le Play που αποκατέστησε εισοδήματα και τύπους οικογενειών ή κοινοτήτων, και του Henri Mendras και των κοινωνιολόγων του αγροτικού χώρου . Το δάνειο από όλες αυτές τις μεθοδολογίες, η συνέχεια της ιστορικής διαδικασίας και η συνολική θεώρηση, η προσέγγιση της κοινότητας μέσω του ατόμου, συγκροτούν για μένα την αξία μιας μονογραφίας που θέλησα να πραγματοποιήσω για τη Ραψάνη .Η επιβίωση και ο μετασχηματισμός της τοπικής κοινωνίας μέσα σε ένα σύνολο που αλλάζει ήταν η διαδικα...

Au xixe siecle, le jeune Etat grec chercha a se doter de services modernes, en partie inspires par ce qui existait en France, pour connaitre l’evolution de sa population : il s’agissait de suivre le mouvement naturel et d’organiser des recensements periodiques. Mais le faible niveau culturel des popes et des responsables territoriaux ne permit pas la reussite de ce projet, d’autant plus que la conservation des archives resta des plus mediocres.La reconstitution de l’evolution de la population d’Athenes et de sa region (l’Attique et la Beotie) dans la seconde moitie du xixe siecle fut encore compliquee par l’instabilite des structures administratives des communes (demes). Au milieu du siecle, Athenes, la nouvelle capitale, n’etait qu’une petite ville de 40 000 habitants, Le Piree une bourgade de 6 500 habitants. En 1896, la population d’Athenes avait triple, celle du Piree avait ete multipliee par cinq. Les statistiques retrouvees du mouvement naturel ne permettent pas de comprendre cette croissance, tres superieure a celle des zones rurales proches (en dehors de la region metallifere du Laurion). Les chiffres des naissances et des mariages sont peu coherents, les taux de natalite et de nuptialite peu credibles. Le plus souvent, le bilan du mouvement naturel est fortement negatif. La croissance de la population de ce qui devint l’agglomeration d’Athenes ne s’explique que par l’importance d’un fort courant migratoire, venu des iles et des autres regions de la Grece, plus que des villages proches.

Les archives de la Crete, et plus specialement celles de la ville de Rethimno, offrent des renseignements multiples sur la mutation du systeme de sante publique au tournant du siecle, quand l'ile est placee sous la protection des puissances europeennes. Celles-ci, dans le but declare de proteger leurs soldats, obligent les autorites locales a surveiller les epidemies, voire a enfermer les populations reputees dangereuses, comme les lepreux ou les prostituees, non sans une forte resistance de celles-ci. Parallelement a l'equipement d'etablissements hospitaliers encore mediocres, le pouvoir legifere les conditions d'exercice de la profession medicale, dont sont peu a peu exclus les Cretois musulmans. Le taux de medicalisation augmente nettement au debut du XXe siecle, notamment dans les villes principales ; les archives notariales de Rethimno revelent que ce corps medical, nouveau et diplome, appartient au monde des notables, et cumule la fonction soignante et les pouvoirs politique et economique.

Abstract This article presents the creation of a new city, Egaleo, on the western outskirts of Athens. as this occurred during the twentieth century—the same period that the Capital Region was established, largely as a result of the influx of approximately 350,000 refugees from Asia Minor in 1922 and the flow of internal immigrants to the capital following World War II. Born of the refugee settlement in the 1920s, Egaleo is a working class city. Using data from the city's municipal registry records, this study focuses on Egaleo's population from the 1920s onwards, with particular emphasis on its socio-professional characteristics.

This article presents the creation of a new city, Egaleo, on the western outskirts of Athens. as this occurred during the twentieth century—the same period that the Capital Region was established, largely as a result of the influx of approximately 350,000 refugees from Asia Minor in 1922 and the flow of internal immigrants to the capital following World War II. Born of the refugee settlement in the 1920s, Egaleo is a working class city. Using data from the city's municipal registry records, this study focuses on Egaleo's population from the 1920s onwards, with particular emphasis on its socio-professional characteristics.