Title not available in English

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss some of the assumptions underlying the wag changes in the Brazilian population dynamics are interpreted. Two of them were selected for examination because of their frequency in the literature an the subject. First, the idea that families were large in the past as a consequence of a deliberately unconfrolled fertility. Second, the supposition that numerous offspring was a response to the way economic production was organized, The discussion focus on the colonato, a labor regime of general use in coffee farming of the Paulista West from the last decades of the XIXth century until 1930. The importance of the family in labor organization in coffee cultivation and the available evidences on family sizes and on labor force within families are examined. The fragility of the arguments in use is demonstrated and the need for more empirical research is stressed. Researches which could better clarify the very complex relationships between so¬cial proce8llell and demo graphic behavior.