In sub-Saharan Africa the phenomenology of the family and marriage is of great interest owing to the extraordinary diversification and complexity of the traditional family systems and to the variety and novelty of the ongoing changes. Ancient traditions and cultures have produced family forms (patrilineal, matrilineal or bilateral lineage systems, co-residential or non co-residential polygamy, fostering) that do not conform to western categories and are difficult to be captured through large scale international surveys (Gage 1997). The continuous evolution and “globalization” interact with these cultural contexts introducing further elements of complexity and developing original dynamics To explore these issues, we analyze the household structures in several sub-Saharan countries, attempting to enlighten the interaction between “modernization” and cultural heritage in shaping family systems We investigate how the characteristics of family systems combine with the level of fertility and the degree of socio-economic development and how countries and ethnic groups resemble each other or differ with regard to these aspects. A temporal perspective has been adopted, as well as the ethnic and rural/urban differentials.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the common and determining elements of marital instability in the first years of marriage in the municipality of Bari, for a comparison on a national level. More specifically, the objective was to verify whether the city of Bari shares the trend which is well established in the rest of Italy towards the so-called “lightening marriages”, by which is intended the interruption of the marriage in its first years. We started from the basic data formed by the time series of first marriages and separations according to the years in which the weddings took place. The separations examined here by means of longitudinal analysis involve cohorts of marriages formed in two five-year periods (the late 20th century, 1985-1989) and the beginning of the 21st century, 2001-2005) held to be of some significance in showing the modifications in the institution of marriage which took place over a period of more than twenty years. The analyses of the data provided interesting results. For example, it was observed that with the passage of time the comparison of the two five-year periods indicates that the consensual initiative is adopted by almost all the couples who decide to separate, because it is simpler, less expensive, and is concluded more quickly. There is also a marked tendency to separate in the first years of marriage and the type of marriage rites definitely does not have any influence on the way in which the marriage breaks own.

Un secolo fa, la mortalità generale era dovuta principalmente alle malattie di origine infettiva. Oggi, con i progressi della sopravvivenza ed una vita media raddoppiata, la maggioranza dei decessi hanno natura degenerativa. L’analisi delle cause di morte assume una notevole importanza dal punto di vista demografico ed è necessaria per poter capire la natura della mortalità e le sue variazioni. Questo scritto si propone di approfondire l’evoluzione della mortalità da diabete mellito nel nostro paese nel corso del XX secolo analizzando, in particolare, i differenziali per sesso ed età.