Ethnicity or Language in the Population Census in 1910-1930 Slovakia (Czechoslovakia): Objectivity and Subjectivity of the Ethnic Make-up of a European Country between the Two World Wars
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Population processes |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | URL adresa článku |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.13187/popul.2017.2.48 |
| Keywords | Czechoslovakia; Slovakia; ethnicity; language; censuses; 1919–1930 |
| Attached files | |
| Description | In Slovakia, the concept of ethnicity was historically tied to two fundamental population attributes – language and community membership. While the statistical practice of the second half of 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century favored language as the primary criterion for determing a person’s ethnicity, Czechoslovak statisticians assigned a larger role to a person’s self-reported membership in a community. The two characteristics of the ethnic composition of the country – the former objective, the latter subjective – were among the most contentious subjects of debate in the preparatory meetings of every census commission. This paper examines some of the logistical and methodological issues related to the issue of ethnicity and language that the census commissions in three censuses: 1919, 1921 and 1930 were confronted with, seeking to place them in a large historical and geographical context. |