FISHING FAMILIES IN 3 DANISH COASTAL COMMUNITIES

Earlier studies of population in Denmark have dealt mainly with demogr aphic behavior in rural areas that depended on agriculture and where r estricted access to limited resources resulted in very high ages at fi rst marriage and small average household size. This study concentrates on another agrarian variant-fishing communities. Developments in thre e coastal communities were analyzed for the period 1787-1901. The inha bitants lived mainly from fishing. Given the technology of the day, th is was an occupation with nearly unlimited resources. Furthermore, the re were no legal restrictions on the partitioning of land in the hamle ts on the coast or on fishing in nearby coastal waters. These conditio ns resulted in earlier marriages, but not in a different family type. Young people in the hamlets established their own households when they married, and fishermen conformed to the nuclear family pattern domina nt in the Nordic countries.