A Nested Logit Approach to Household Mobility

This study analyzes personal and site characteristics in a model of intraMSA and interMSA mobility. Households are assumed to choose a single type of move, intraMSA or interMSA, while simultaneously choosing a central city or suburban destination. We demonstrate that a nested logit model is appropriate on both theoretical and empirical grounds. The sample consists of intrametropolitan and intermetropolitan movers drawn from the 1990 U.S. Census PUMS. Personal characteristics drawn from the PUMS are matched to numerous site characteristics (climatic measures, other amenities, state and local fiscal characteristics, and other urban quality measures) drawn from a variety of sources. Nested logit direct and cross elasticities are presented for a number of site attributes.     

WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT THE USEFUL DIVERSITY OF THEORY IN SOUTHEASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY

Theory is crucial but has become boring and unintelligible; it is often ignored by most professionals. Archaeology must include a foundation of culture history, processual science, and postprocessual imagination and counteraction of bias. Further, all archaeology should aim for public aspects and practical applications. Theoretical writing must be clear and avoid pretension. Gender bias in Southeastern archaeology is one of the worst distortions of the prehistoric record for what were probably matrilineal societies. Diverse humanistic approaches from many (including non-archaeological) viewpoints can provide worthwhile avenues for investigation with new scientific tools. Narrow interpretive frameworks should be avoided in favor of the delightful banquet of multiple simultaneous or blended approaches.     

'Til death parts us: women’s domestic partnerships in eighteenth-century Brittany

This article investigates the legal provision for two adult, unmarried women to create a “perpetual society” with one another found in the customary code of 1725 for the French province of Brittany. This arrangement allowed women who shared a household to designate one another as primary heir and to protect their community property from the claims of others. Evidence of this arrangement demonstrates that single women in some places had options outside of marriage and the convent. The contracts filed by the women also reveal the extent to which this arrangement went beyond considerations of property to express both affection and loyalty. Available to siblings as well as to pairs of unrelated women, this union is likely not the equivalent of same-sex marriage. It does however broaden our knowledge of the meaning of marriage, partnership, and kin in early modern Europe.