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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NiO. 12 



Of the persons whose deaths occurred during the 

 25 years from 1923 to 1947, inclusive, according to 

 the records kept by the village registrar, 150 had 

 reached at least 70 years of age ; slightly over half 

 (79) of these were men. Fifty-six were over 80 

 years of age, 31 of whom were women. Twenty- 

 one were over 90 years of age, 13 of whom were 

 women. Six were over 100, all of whom were 

 women ; four of these were over 110 years each and 

 two were listed as over 120 years. Of the 635 per- 

 sons living to be at least 20 years of age, 23.6 

 percent were 70 years or more at the time of death ; 

 41.4 percent were 60 years or more; 56.1 percent 

 were 50 years or more. 



It is possible that there is some error in at least 

 the upper ranges of these statistics. In a few cases, 

 no registry may have been made of the individ- 

 ual's birth. At least one elderly person now liv- 

 ing in the village does not know her precise age. 

 At the same time, it is clear that a considerable 

 number of pei-sons in this community have lived 

 to what is referred to as "a ripe old age." If an 

 individual survives the first 5 years of life, where 

 the mortality rate, as will be apparent in the next 

 section, is quite high, he has an even chance of 

 reaching 50 years of age ; he has nearly one chance 

 in four of reaching 70 years of age ; and he may 

 live to be 100 years or older. A midwife says her 

 father was 101 years old at his death, and her 

 mother was 96. A village official tells of a former 

 resident now living in a nearby town who has been 

 married 80 yeai-s and is now 106 years old. His 

 wife is also living. 



These and similar cases have given rise to a leg- 

 end of longevity in the area. A man from a neigh- 

 boring town was heard to remark : "Ever so often, 

 I hear that So-and-So has died at Such-and-Such 

 a place and that someone else has died somewhere 

 else, but I never hear of anyone dying in Cruz das 

 Almas." Although obviously an overstatement, 

 this remark emphasizes the hardihood of the local 

 population. 



INFANT MORTALITY 



As has been suggested, the rate of infant mortal- 

 ity is comparatively high. Of 10 mothers inter- 

 viewed at random, only one had not lost a child. 

 She was a young woman 22 years of age, and had 

 two children living. One other mother had lost 

 six children and a third had lost five. The remain- 



ing seven women had lost one child each. The 10 

 mothers had thus lost 18 children in all. The ages 

 at death ranged from 9 days to 4 years, the majority 

 being in the early months of life. 



The 24 women referred to above, who are over 

 50 years of age and hence presumably past the 

 child-bearing period, had given birth, as was indi- 

 cated, to 176 childi'en. Of these, only 84, or less 

 than one-half, are now living. Whereas the num- 

 ber of children born averaged over seven for each 

 mother, the average number now living is some- 

 thing over three. 



In 1947, there were registered in the community 

 111 live births and 18 deaths under 1 year of age. 

 The infant mortality rate for this year, therefore, 

 was 162 per 1,000 live births. In the 25 years from 

 1923 to 1947, there were recorded 522 deaths under 

 1 year of age and 3,049 live births. This repre- 

 sents an average of 122 births and 20.9 infant 

 deaths annually. For these 25 years, therefore, the 

 average infant mortality rate was 172.1. 



Of the 1,769 persons whose deaths were recorded 

 during the same 25 years, 18.7 percent had died 

 under 6 months of age; 26.6 percent under 1 year; 

 43.4 percent under 2 years ; and over half, or 55.3 

 percent, under 5 years. Only about a third (35.4 

 percent) were over 21 years of age at the time of 

 death. 



There does not seem to be any appreciable dif- 

 ference in the infant mortality rate with reference 

 to either sex or color. Slightly more male infants 

 die under 6 months of age and this proportion 

 maintains itself rather constantly during the first 

 years of life, an apparently universal phenomenon 

 which in this community, as elsewhere, is offset by 

 the favorable balance of boy babies at birth. Of 

 the deaths recorded in the community between 1923 

 and 1947 inclusive, the proportion of the deaths 

 occurring in each sex group, which pertained to 

 children under 5 years of age is shown in table 7. 



Table 7. — Dculhs vndcr 5 i/cars of age, bji sex, Cruz das 

 Almas community, 1923-Jf7 ' 



' Source ; Records of village registrar of vital statistics. 



