Ségrégation, Métis et identification ethnique à travers le jumelage du recensement de 1851 et les actes d’état civil

Abstract

This methodological note presents a new spatial segregation index based on neighbourhood. It makes use of nominal data from the 1851 census to estimate the degree of concentration in a mixed-ancestry population (Indigenous and non- Indigenous). The tool was developped for a study concerning the identification of a historical Métis community in the present-day Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region in Quebec. The index sheds light on the spatial and residential behaviours of the population, and, in so doing, constitutes an indirect but precious tool for examining possible factors of identity otherwise not well documented elsewhere. Although developed in a specific context, this methodological tool has a broad range of applications.