Shane Doyle
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265338
- eISBN:
- 9780191760488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265338.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter reports that the main reasons why fertility rose in Ankole, Buganda and Buhaya were not associated with changing age at first marriage or a growing economic desire for larger families, ...
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This chapter reports that the main reasons why fertility rose in Ankole, Buganda and Buhaya were not associated with changing age at first marriage or a growing economic desire for larger families, but rather primarily because of the increased duration of women's reproductive lives. This was partly linked with declining divorce rates in Ankole and Buhaya; Ganda women's increasing willingness to have children outside marriage; and more importantly with a reduction in secondary sterility. A shortening of birth intervals in Buganda from the 1920s, in Ankole from the 1930s and Buhaya from the 1940s, was also significant. The chapter attempts to explain why fertility increase in Ankole occurred decades earlier than in Buganda and Buhaya, yet colonial Ankole was much poorer, less Christianized, and had inferior medical and educational services. This region's exceptionalism is explained mainly by Buganda and Buhaya's marital instability before the 1960s and surprisingly high disease burdens.Less
This chapter reports that the main reasons why fertility rose in Ankole, Buganda and Buhaya were not associated with changing age at first marriage or a growing economic desire for larger families, but rather primarily because of the increased duration of women's reproductive lives. This was partly linked with declining divorce rates in Ankole and Buhaya; Ganda women's increasing willingness to have children outside marriage; and more importantly with a reduction in secondary sterility. A shortening of birth intervals in Buganda from the 1920s, in Ankole from the 1930s and Buhaya from the 1940s, was also significant. The chapter attempts to explain why fertility increase in Ankole occurred decades earlier than in Buganda and Buhaya, yet colonial Ankole was much poorer, less Christianized, and had inferior medical and educational services. This region's exceptionalism is explained mainly by Buganda and Buhaya's marital instability before the 1960s and surprisingly high disease burdens.
David M. Stark
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813060439
- eISBN:
- 9780813050669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060439.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Slave families were relatively stable and marital unions were often of long duration. Higher fertility levels exhibited by married and unmarried mothers suggest that fecundity was greater in areas ...
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Slave families were relatively stable and marital unions were often of long duration. Higher fertility levels exhibited by married and unmarried mothers suggest that fecundity was greater in areas encompassed by the hato economy. Family life was characterized for the most part by a young age at first birth, a long reproductive period, and relatively short birth intervals. Areas where slaves worked outside the sugar economy were linked to greater fertility rates and larger slaver families. A greater incidence of marriage in Arecibo resulted in higher legitimacy rates than documented in many parts of the Americas. Still most births occurred outside the context of marriage. Does this mean that unmarried mothers were involved in unstable relationships and their pregnancies the result of temporary or irregular unions? Some unmarried mothers, after having given birth to one or more children, eventually married the child(ren)’s father. Child spacing intervals observed among unmarried mothers and their married counterparts were similar. Children born to unmarried mothers were often the product of sexual unions that were stable and not the result of sporadic or random encounters implying no permanency of relationship or family unit.Less
Slave families were relatively stable and marital unions were often of long duration. Higher fertility levels exhibited by married and unmarried mothers suggest that fecundity was greater in areas encompassed by the hato economy. Family life was characterized for the most part by a young age at first birth, a long reproductive period, and relatively short birth intervals. Areas where slaves worked outside the sugar economy were linked to greater fertility rates and larger slaver families. A greater incidence of marriage in Arecibo resulted in higher legitimacy rates than documented in many parts of the Americas. Still most births occurred outside the context of marriage. Does this mean that unmarried mothers were involved in unstable relationships and their pregnancies the result of temporary or irregular unions? Some unmarried mothers, after having given birth to one or more children, eventually married the child(ren)’s father. Child spacing intervals observed among unmarried mothers and their married counterparts were similar. Children born to unmarried mothers were often the product of sexual unions that were stable and not the result of sporadic or random encounters implying no permanency of relationship or family unit.
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226058511
- eISBN:
- 9780226058504
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226058504.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the birth interval in the Gambia: the small, apparently nondescript duration that separates one birth from the next. The central theme is a critique of the natural fertility ...
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This chapter examines the birth interval in the Gambia: the small, apparently nondescript duration that separates one birth from the next. The central theme is a critique of the natural fertility paradigm's minimalist views of intentionalities with respect to birth intervals specifically and to reproductive behaviors generally. The natural fertility framework has presumed that in societies where people do not want to limit children, fertility levels will reflect the rhythms produced by biology in combination with local custom. Contraceptives, which are used to limit fertility, will play no role or a minimal one. Efforts to space children's births at safe temporal distances from one another have drawn some of the most detailed attention in the demography of developing countries. The findings on child spacing undermined static depictions of women as being of one type or another: users, nonusers, or spacers. The problem in conventional analyses of contraceptive use has been that users and nonusers are treated as distinct groups of people, when contraceptive use is instead a temporary role. Numerous demographic works have tried to be sensitive to cultural temporalities of sexuality according to the most recent child's development and feeding progress in societies that pay scant attention to age.Less
This chapter examines the birth interval in the Gambia: the small, apparently nondescript duration that separates one birth from the next. The central theme is a critique of the natural fertility paradigm's minimalist views of intentionalities with respect to birth intervals specifically and to reproductive behaviors generally. The natural fertility framework has presumed that in societies where people do not want to limit children, fertility levels will reflect the rhythms produced by biology in combination with local custom. Contraceptives, which are used to limit fertility, will play no role or a minimal one. Efforts to space children's births at safe temporal distances from one another have drawn some of the most detailed attention in the demography of developing countries. The findings on child spacing undermined static depictions of women as being of one type or another: users, nonusers, or spacers. The problem in conventional analyses of contraceptive use has been that users and nonusers are treated as distinct groups of people, when contraceptive use is instead a temporary role. Numerous demographic works have tried to be sensitive to cultural temporalities of sexuality according to the most recent child's development and feeding progress in societies that pay scant attention to age.
Cynthia J. Moss and Phyllis C. Lee
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226542232
- eISBN:
- 9780226542263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226542263.003.0012
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Behavior / Behavioral Ecology
This chapter first focuses on the question, how do individuals maximize their reproductive potential? In this context, it explores age at first reproduction, sex ratios and calf sex, calf survival, ...
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This chapter first focuses on the question, how do individuals maximize their reproductive potential? In this context, it explores age at first reproduction, sex ratios and calf sex, calf survival, and age-specific variation in inter-birth intervals. The chapter then addresses the question, how does the social context affect reproduction for elephant females? It examines whether there is evidence of hierarchical or status effects on reproductive potential, and finally, deals with the question, how do both the individual and the social context for reproduction change over a life span? The chapter uses the conventional concept of a strategy as that of consistent and measurable outcomes, which vary between age-classes, between matriarchs and subordinate females, and among individuals in relation to complex individual, group, or time-specific traits. It explores reproductive strategies from the perspectives of consistency and variation in tactics—an exploration of alternatives available to females.Less
This chapter first focuses on the question, how do individuals maximize their reproductive potential? In this context, it explores age at first reproduction, sex ratios and calf sex, calf survival, and age-specific variation in inter-birth intervals. The chapter then addresses the question, how does the social context affect reproduction for elephant females? It examines whether there is evidence of hierarchical or status effects on reproductive potential, and finally, deals with the question, how do both the individual and the social context for reproduction change over a life span? The chapter uses the conventional concept of a strategy as that of consistent and measurable outcomes, which vary between age-classes, between matriarchs and subordinate females, and among individuals in relation to complex individual, group, or time-specific traits. It explores reproductive strategies from the perspectives of consistency and variation in tactics—an exploration of alternatives available to females.
