[The psychology of being unaccounted for, based on the example of children of missing German soldiers from World War II]. / Psychologie der Vermissung am Beispiel der Kinder von Vermissten Deutschen Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkriegs.

OBJECTIVES: Despite today's extensive research on the psychosocial consequences of World War II, the group of wives and children whose husbands or fathers went "missing in action" during the Second World War, has yet to be studied systematically in Germany. The present review article shows the special role the wives, and in particular the children, of missing German soldiers played in society and discusses the impact of their loved ones being unaccounted has had on the mental health of this group. METHODS: An overview of current research on the psychosocial status of the war generation is given following a short historical introduction to the theme. Subsequently, we discuss the legal and social situation of the families of missing German soldiers during the postwar decades. Finally, two psychological concepts drawn from the US research show that specific disorders, such as complicated grief or "boundary ambiguity," can occur in the relatives of missing persons and blur the line between hope and grief occurring as a result of ambiguous loss. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The psychosocial impact of having a relative go missing has hardly been noticed in the German research tradition after World War II. Particularly in light of the age structure of those directly affected and the experiences of transgenerational transmission this neglected psychosocial research subject urgently needs further scientific investigation, inasmuch as the age of the family members still allows it.

Guilds and middle-class welfare, 1550­1800: provisions for burial, sickness, old age, and widowhood.

Guilds provided for masters' and journeymen's burial, sickness, old age, and widowhood. Guild welfare was of importance to artisans, to the functioning of guilds, to the myriad of urban social relations, and to the political economy. However, it is an understated and neglected aspect of guild activities. This article looks at welfare provision by guilds, with the aim of addressing four questions. Firstly, for which risks did guild welfare arrangements exist in the Netherlands between 1550 and 1800, and what were the coverage, contributions, benefit levels, and conditions? Secondly, can guild welfare arrangements be regarded as insurance? Thirdly, to what extent and how did guilds overcome classic insurance problems such as adverse selection, moral hazards, and correlated risks? Finally, what was the position of guild provision in the Dutch political economy and vis-à-vis poor relief?

Widows' land security in the era of HIV/AIDS: panel survey evidence from Zambia.

In areas of Africa hard hit by HIV/AIDS, there are growing concerns that many women lose access to land after the death of their husbands. However, there remains a dearth of quantitative evidence on the proportion of widows who lose access to their deceased husband's land, whether they lose all or part of that land, and whether there are factors specific to the widow, her family, or the broader community that influence her ability to maintain rights to land. This study examines these issues using average treatment effects models with propensity score matching applied to a nationally representative panel data of 5,342 rural households surveyed in 2001 and 2004. Results are highly variable, with roughly a third of households incurring the death of a male household head controlling less than 50% of the land they had prior to their husband's death, while over a quarter actually controlled as much or even more land than while their husbands were alive. Widows who were in relatively wealthy households prior to their husband's death lose proportionately more land than widows in households that were relatively poor. Older widows and widows related to the local headman enjoy greater land security. Women in matrilineal inheritance areas were no less likely to lose land than women in patrilineal areas.

Intimacy and the life cycle in the marital relationships of the Scottish elite during the long eighteenth century.

Traditionally marriage has been treated as one step in the life cycle, between youth and old age, singleness and widowhood. Yet an approach to the life cycle that treats marriage as a single step in a person's life is overly simplistic. During the eighteenth century many marriages were of considerable longevity during which time couples aged together and power dynamics within the home were frequently renegotiated to reflect changing circumstances. This study explores how intimacy developed and changed over the life cycle of marriage and what this meant for power, through a study of the correspondence of two elite Scottish couples.

A life-course approach to studying transitions among Canadian seniors in couple-only households.

This study tracked the occurrence of death, widowhood, institutionalization, and coresidence with others between 1994 and 2002 for a nationally representative sample of 1,580 Canadian respondents who, at initial interview, were aged 55 and older and living in a couple-only household. Although the majority of seniors remained in a couple-only household throughout the duration of the survey, nearly one in four who experienced a first transition underwent one or more subsequent transitions. Age, economic resources, and health were significant predictors of a specific first transition and multiple transitions. More work is needed to understand the dynamics of the aging process.

Marriage and the family in a Maltese parish: St. Mary's (Qrendi) in the eighteenth century.

This article addresses the Maltese traditional family, taking St. Mary's (Qrendi) as a test case. It results that couples married in their early twenties, while a high proportion of men and women never married at all. Marriage was not popular so that one-fifth of all marriages were remarriages. Very few widows remarried and it was only for some economic reason that they sought another man. There is no evidence though that a high rate of celibacy resulted in flagrant promiscuity even if there is evidence that the Qrendin were not so particular about their sex life. No birth control was practiced within marriage and children followed one another regularly. This brings into relief the parents' unconcern for their offspring's future as well as the inferior status of women because husbands made their wives several offspring. Relations between the spouses were poor so that dissatisfied couples went their own ways.

Suttee Sainthood through selflessness: pain of repression or power of devotion?

The immolation of Hindu widows has generated much horror while remaining tenaciously mixed with clandestine admiration. Reported in many eyewitness accounts and literary works, the topic has given rise to highly contested sociocultural, legal and ideological debates, strongly linked to women's rights. But the root question has not gone away: is suttee/sati just painful female victimisation or can it also reflect powerful female agency and the power of devotion? This article examines two literary works, Maud Diver's Lilamani, in which an Englishwoman unreservedly idolises a suttee, and Krupabai Satthianadhan's Kamala, where an Indian woman expresses deep pride in sutteehood. Engaging in a search for deeper meanings, this article asks what makes these two women writers revere a suttee so totally. Can one really be a suttee-saint through selflessness, or are there some deeper meanings yet to be uncovered? A wider political interpretation is suggested to re/present the root meaning of suttee.

Coping versus grieving in a "death-accepting" society: AIDS-bereaved women living with HIV in Indonesia.

The aim of this study was to understand how AIDS-bereaved women in Indonesia cope in a society where death is believed to be fated. Data analyses were conducted based on the women's interview transcripts and journal entries. Each of the women experienced at least three traumatic life events. The most challenging experience was learning that they have contracted a disease they regarded as associated with prostitution. Given the short lapse of time between their husbands' deaths and learning about their seropositivity, biographical disruption appeared to have acted as an 'analgesic', while concerns to protect their children seemed to have triggered biographical reinforcement. This phenomenon may have brought about a positive bereavement outcome. Specific counselling programmes for women affected by HIV/AIDS are needed, but emphasis should first be placed on improving their wellbeing and their perception of stigma.

The business of relief work: a Victorian Quaker in Constantinople and her circle.

This article explores how Victorian notions of charity translated to evangelical mission projects in the Near East. Focusing on Quaker philanthropist Ann Mary Burgess, it traces the trade networks that she established to serve the Armenian community living in the Ottoman Empire. Burgess's vast network of supporters throughout Britain, Europe, and the Near East enabled her to fund relief projects using profits from goods produced by the orphans and widows served by the Friends' Constantinople Mission. The mapping of these networks reveals the evolving relationship between evangelicalism, the humanitarian movement, and the marketplace in imperial Britain.

The death of mourning: from Victorian crepe to the little black dress.

Mourning is a natural response to loss. In the late eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, in England and France, the bereaved was expected to follow a complex set of rules, particularly among the upper classes, with women more bound to adhere to these customs than men. Such customs involved wearing heavy, concealing, black costume and the use of black crepe veils. Special black caps and bonnets were worn with these ensembles. Widows were expected to wear these clothes up to four years after their loss to show their grief. Jewelry often made of dark black jet or the hair of the deceased was used. To remove the costume earlier was thought disrespectful to the deceased. Formal mourning culminated during the reign of Queen Victoria. Her prolonged grief over the death of her husband, Prince Albert, had much to do with the practice. During the succeeding Edwardian rule, the fashions began to be more functional and less restrictive, but the dress protocol for men and women, including that for the period of mourning, was still rigidly adhered to. When World War I began, many women joined the workforce. Most widows attempted to maintain the traditional conventions of mourning, but with an increase in the number of casualties, it became impractical for them to interrupt their work in order to observe the seclusion called for by formal mourning etiquette. Never had the code of mourning been less strictly applied than during this period. The mourning outfits of the time were modest and made of practical materials. Little jewelry and few other accessories were used. Certain aspects of traditional mourning were still followed, such as the use of jet beading, crepe trim, and widows' caps. However, the hemlines fell above the ankle, the veil was used to frame the face instead of cover it, and the v-neckline left the chest and neck bare. During the following decades, gradually the rules were relaxed further and it became acceptable for both sexes to dress in dark colors for up to a year after a death in the family.

Widow and widower remarriage: an analysis in a rural 19th century Costa Rican population and a cross-cultural discussion.

Although the topic of remarriage features saliently in the cultural anthropological literature, it is virtually absent in the biological anthropology journals. This is perplexing, given that remarriage affects the differential reproductive success of males and females in a community, and could well impact a community's population structure. In this paper, we research remarriage practices in a rural 19th century community in Costa Rica. Although we find support for the proposition that males are more likely to remarry than females, we find that widows who remarry are not all young and able to reproduce. Our findings support the cross-culturally-generated suggestion that a female's ability not to remarry is tied to her to ability to own property. Remarriage is a topic of interest to biological anthropologists from a cross-cultural and biocultural perspective.