Situating Fertility: Anthropology and Demographic Inquiry

320 Pages·1995·6.53 MB·English

by  Susan Greenhalgh

In this collection of essays ten anthropologists and two historians develop
new cultural and political approaches to human reproduction. Fertility
has commonly been treated from a specialized demographic perspective,
but today there is widespread dissatisfaction with conventional demographic
approaches, which neglect the roles of culture, history and politics in
reproductive life. For their part, anthropologists have only recently begun
to apply their characteristic approaches to the study of reproduction.
Drawing on new ethnographic and historical research and informed by
contemporary anthropological theory, this book elaborates a culture and
political economy of fertility that incorporates the place of culture and
history, gender and power in reproductive life.

Situating fertility

Situating fertility
Anthropology and demographic inquiry
EDITED BY
SUSAN GREENHALGH
University of California, Irvine
CAMBRIDGE
ffl UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1995
First published 1995
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Situating fertility: Anthropology and demographic inquiry
reproduction / edited by Susan Greenhalgh.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 47044 7 (hardback) - ISBN 0 521 46999 6 (paperback)
1. Fertility, Human - Cross-cultural studies. 2. Human
reproduction - Cross-cultural studies. 3. Demographic anthropology.
I. Greenhalgh, Susan.
GN241.C85 1995
304.6'32 - dc20 94^28528 CIP
ISBN 0 521 47044 7 hardback
ISBN 0 521 46999 6 paperback
Transferred to digital printing 2004
VN
To three people whose resistance to disciplinary hegemonies
provided crucial inspiration: Paul, Geoff and Ed.

Contents
List of figures page xi
List of tables xii
List of contributors xiii
Preface xiv
Conceiving reproduction: Trans-disciplinary views 1
1. Anthropology theorizes reproduction: Integrating practice,
political economic, and feminist perspectives 3
SUSAN GREENHALGH
2. Political-economic and cultural explanations of demographic
behavior 29
DAVID I. KERTZER
The social management of fertility 53
3. Agency and fertility: For an ethnography of practice 55
ANTHONY T. CARTER
4. Invisible cultures: Poor women's networks and reproductive
strategies in nineteenth-century Paris 86
RACHEL G. FUCHS AND LESLIE PAGE MOCH
5. The power of names: Illegitimacy in a Muslim community in
Cote d'lvoire 108
ROBERT LAUNAY
6. Marginal members: Children of previous unions in Mende
households in Sierra Leone 130
CAROLINE BLEDSOE
IX
x Contents
Gender, class, and clan: The social inequality of reproduction 155
7. Women's empowerment and fertility decline in western Kenya 157
CANDICE BRADLEY
8. High fertility and poverty in Sicily: Beyond the culture vs.
rationality debate 179
PETER SCHNEIDER AND JANE SCHNEIDER
9. History, marriage politics, and demographic events in the
central Himalaya 202
TOM FRICKE
10. Economics 1, culture 0: Fertility change and differences in
the northwest Balkans, 1700-1900 225
E. A. HAMMEL
Afterword: (Re)capturing reproduction for anthropology 259
References 264
Index 295