Blood Is Thicker Than Bloodshed: A Genealogical Approach to Reconstruct Populations After Armed Conflicts

Diego Alburez-Gutierrez , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

This paper introduces the Extended Genealogy Method (EGM), a new approach for collecting high-quality data for demographic analysis using extended genealogies. The EGM uses chain-referral sampling to create socio-centric family networks. The sampling and data processing strategies address retrospective and selection bias and ensure data completeness. To evaluate the quality of the method, the paper shows how the EGM was used to reconstruct the demographic history of a population in Guatemala affected by mass violence in 1982. Data on 3,566 unique individuals and 1,986 partnerships were collected from 100 EGM interviews. The paper describes how the data were collected, processed, and checked for systematic sources of error. It also shows how they were used to reconstruct the demographic dynamics in the population for the 1955-2015 period. The EGM can be applied reconstruct the demographic dynamics of local populations in contexts of data scarcity, such as during and after armed conflicts.

See paper

 Presented in Session 252. Mixed Methods