JOURNAL OF POPULATION ASSOCIATION OF IRAN
Year:2007 | Volume:1 | Issue:2|Papers Count:10

The present article examines the ideas of two eminent scholars in Qajar era who were pioneers in presenting some issues and concepts regarding the population.The former, A. Najmoldoleh, was a distinguished mathematician, astronomer and a productive author of the time. He organized and earried out the first complete enumeration in Tehran with the aid of eight of his students in Darolphonon school in 1867 A. D. He presented the science of statistics and some of the related concepts (such as: Mean) to Iranian for the first time. Also, he was the first to introduce discussions regarding population issues and specifically the population theory of Malthus. He drew a comprehensive map of Tehran and prepared tables for matching solar and lunar years and also calculated Iran's formal yearly calendar for 57 years. The latter was A. Zanjani, the translator of Taharatol-araq by Ebne-moskoviah (who lived about six centuries befor maltus but had similar ideas to him).While providing about some of the main population issues including: earths limits for increasing population, law average life expectancy of the Iranians and the considerable reduction of the iran's population at the time, compared with attempts of European countries to improve the peoples health situation which has led to the increase of average life expectancy.

This article deals with changes of Iranian family in the process of its demographic transition. A global theoretical approach was constructed for this study. In this approach, in addition to local conditions and factors, external forces of globalization were also considered to be at work, changing Iranian family. Because different social groups, with different predisposition, have been differentially exposed to and interacted with external forces, one can simultaneously find families that - with respect to type, style of formation, age at marriage and level of childbearing-regarding western experience, belong to non-simultaneous social contexts. Nevertheless, the general trend of Iranian family change has been towards nuclear family, less stability, increased age at marriage and lower level of childbearing.It was inferred that, prior to the completion of its demographic transition, Iranian society has already partially started its second demographic transition.Given the gaining pace of communication revolution and increasing proportion of Iranian users of modern means of communication, especially internet, it is also inferred that changes in Iranian family will even get faster in future. It was therefore suggested that, for more effective study of Iranian family's stability and change, (1) Statistical Center of Iran adopts currently used classification of households and provide adequate family statistics, and (2) some eligible universities undertake to set up "community and family study center".

Consanguineous marriage has heen a preferred marriage pattern in Iran. Studies have considered consanguineous marriage as a traditional pattern of marriage which is more prevalent among people with traditional characteristics and family background. Using data from the "2001 Household Socio-Economic Characteristics Survey", this paper examines the level, trend as well as social, cultural and demographic correlates of consanguineous marriage in Iran. The results indicate that despite the fact that Iran has been affected by moderniztion, urbaniztion and industrialization forces during the last decades, the level of consanguineous marriage has been relatively stable and constant during this period. The findings also confirm the higher incidence of consanguineous marriage among people with traditional characteristics and show distinct levels and patterns of consanguineous marriage among different ethnic groups. Comprehensive studies using qualitative methods are needed to deepen our understanding on the social, cultural and economic aspects of consanguinity in Iran.

Demographers, sociologist and anthropologist have examined the historical trend of marriage from different dimensions and perspectives and discussed it in an interdisciplinar manner. This article is a partial outcome of a survey on sociological factors affecting the rise in the age of marriages conducted in the city of Rasht. The basic question dealt with in the article is the trend of changes in characteristics and challenges of marriage in the province of Guilan and the city of Rasht. The methodology of this work is based on both survey and secondary analysis and the studied population includes the never married males and females of the city of Rasht aged 25-39. The results indicate that the marriage rate is affected by natural and political factors, such as earth-quake, war and revolution and, also, by intermediate and micro social factors, such as lack of proper job and income, homelessness, educational obstacles, not finding proper spouse, high costs of marriage, rising expectation of families, older single ciebling and lack of institutional support in the studied population.

The mean at marriage is the most prevalent indicator for timing of marriage I demographic and social studies. Since, calculation of this indicator requires information on number of marriages and age at marriage, in most cases the researcher is forced to use an indirect technique which is called Singulate Mean Age at Marriage (SMAM). Nevertheless, the efficiency of SMAM as an estimate for mean age at marriage is depended upon complicated assumptions regarding persistence of marriage patterns. This paper uses census data, along with direct and indirect techniques in order to reject the assumption of persistence of marriage patterns among 1980s and 1990s marriage cohort women’s. It will then indicate that of SMAM not only has a low capability for estimating mean age at marriage but it also has a high degree of bias in a population with changing marriage patterns.

Review of social studies of HIV/AIDS for the last quarter of century shows that three distinct paradigms of "behavioral risks", "cultural meanings". And "structural factors or radical constructionist" have been the dominant paradigmatic orientations behind most of the individual, groups, national and international programs and interventions on HIV/AIDS. This article investigates the stance and the relationship of demography with these paradigmatic orientations and through examination of the mission, vision, and subject matter of recent paradigms in demography attempts to introduce "critical social demography of HIV/AIDS" in Iran. It argues that in order to succeed in management of the problem, to prevent it from turning into a serious social crises, countries such as Iran have to pay simultaneous and equal attention on structural, as well constructionist factors to the problems in their society and adopt an active social intervention strategy based on these factors. This in turn, necessitates active creation, adoption and use of paradigms, theories, knowledge, and applied programs that are created in social sciences and more specifically in "critical social demography of HIV/AIDS".

The theory of demographic transition, with a long precedence, is one of the sustainable conceptual frameworks which are used to explain the historical and social evolution of populations. During the process of mortality transition, the causes of death are changed from infectious and parasitic to noninfectious diseases. The concomitant epidemiological transition, oversees the overall and complex patterns of health and illness and tries to explain the interrelations between social, economic, biological and demographic factors affecting such patterns and the ensuing consequences of these changes. Using existing data, this article investigates the patterns of mortality and epidemiological transitions in Iran for the last decade. While historical data indicates that mortality transition might have started from 1320 in Iran, examination of changes in trades of causes of death, during 1375-1384, indicates that the mortality rates caused by infectious diseases have declined 50%. It also shows a considerable increase in rate of four major causes of death that is, heart disease, cancer, lung disease and unintentional injuries (Accidents), Taking it together the rate for these leading causes of death has jumped from 39.4% to 63.1%, suggesting that Iran is experiencing a continuous epidemiological transition.

First of all, this paper is going to discuss some different perspectives regarding the concept of social problem. On this regard, the different and significant aspects of the social problem are elaborated, while describing the different attitudes towards the origin and reference point to these problems. Then one can take the population into account as a social phenomenon and after review on the history of pathological perception on population issues, the population would show up as a social problem by means of explanation of the problematic criteria and dimensions of population phenomena in the context of the social systems and emphasis on the complexity of population problems.In this case, this paper would offer some ideas on the conditions in which the population would be considered as a social problem, through the perception of the concepts of the social problems as well as population.