More Than Childbirth: Unveiling the Risks of Marriage on Women's Mortality in Tang Dynasty China.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

This study investigates how marital and maternal statuses influenced female mortality in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 ce), China. It challenges the focus on reproductive risks by exploring both biological and social factors affecting female mortality in reproductive and post-reproductive years.

Materials and methods

Epitaph data were analyzed from four female groups: bureaucrats' wives (married, reproductive), eunuchs' wives (married, nonreproductive due to husband's castration), never-married religious women (never married, nonreproductive), and widowed religious women (reproductive, later left marriage). Ages at death were illustrated using summary statistics and kernel density plots, analyzed using bootstrapped polynomial regression, pairwise comparisons with 9999

SUBMITTER: Liu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12606549 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature