Anthroponymie et comportements démographiques : les « cherches de feux » bourguignonnes des XIVe et XVe siècles

Anthroponymy and demographic behavior Extensive use has long been made of censuses of households as indicators of demographic change in the late Middle Ages. These serial documents, which often take the form of name lists of "heads of households" (chefs de feux), have served primarily as source material for anthroponymic studies. Yet changes in the patronymic stock can also yield demographic information. The emergence and disappearance of surnames, as well as the patterns of dispersion and concentration of groups of homonymous households, no doubt reflect the instability of surnames in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. But in all likelihood these phenomena are also an indication of mortality rates, migration patterns, and the development of lineages. They afford an insight into—if not a way of quantifying—these forms of demographic behavior, which influenced the changes in the number of households. The article uses an example from Burgundy to test the validity of this working hypothesis.Beck Patrice. Anthroponymie et comportements démographiques : les « cherches de feux » bourguignonnes des XIVe et XVe siècles. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 38ᵉ année, N. 6, 1983. pp. 1336-1345