lt.representativity.Rd

% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
% Please edit documentation in R/representativity.R
\name{lt.representativity}
\alias{lt.representativity}
\title{Checks the representativity of the non-adult age groups in a mortAAR
life table}
\usage{
lt.representativity(life_table)
}
\arguments{
\item{life_table}{an object of class mortaar_life_table.}
}
\value{
data.frame showing the indices and explaining their interpretation.
}
\description{
\emph{Weiss 1973}, 46f. and \emph{Bocquet-Appel and Masset 1977} (see also
\emph{Herrmann et al. 1990}, 306f.) have devised indices which check
if the non-adult age groups are represented in proportions as can be
expected from modern comparable data. Whether this is really applicable
to archaeological data-sets is a matter of debate.
}
\details{
Weiss chose the mortality (qx) as deciding factor and claimed that
(1) the probability of death of the age group 10--15 (5q10)
should be lower than that of the group 15--20 (5q15) and that (2)
the latter in turn should be lower than that of age group 0--5
(5q0).\cr
In contrast, Bocquet-Appel and Masset took the raw number of dead (Dx)
and asserted that (1) the ratio of those having died between 5 and 10
(5D5) to those having died between 10 and 15 (5D15) should be equal or
larger than 2 and that (2) the ratio of those having died between 5 and 15
(10D5) and all adults (>= 20) should be 0.1 or larger.\cr
Due to the specific nature of the indices, they only give meaningful
results if 5-year-age categories have been chosen for the non-adults.
}
\examples{
schleswig <- life.table(schleswig_ma[c("a", "Dx")])
lt.representativity(schleswig)

}
\references{
\insertRef{herrmann_prahistorische_1990}{mortAAR}

\insertRef{masset_bocquet_1977}{mortAAR}

\insertRef{weiss_demography_1973}{mortAAR}
}