The Interdependence of Vital Events: Twentieth-Century Indian Kerala

The parish records of Syrian Catholics and Latin Catholics in twentieth-century Kerala, India, can be used to assess the seasonal fluctuations and interdependence of such vital events as births, deaths, and marriages in the short run. That the effect of seasonality has been more pronounced among the Syrian Catholic community than among the Latin Catholic community is due largely to socioeconomic, cultural, religious, and, more important, occupational differences.