This collection addresses the world-wide pattern of falling birth rates. Fertility has commonly been treated from a specialized demographic perspective, but there is today widespread dissatisfaction with conventional demographic approaches, which are criticized for neglecting the cultural, social, and political forces that affect reproductive behavior. 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 on a variety of theoretical approaches, the contributors to this book indicate some of the ways in which demography might take into account historical processes, political forces, and cultural conceptions.

In this dissertation I investigate whether or not a series of social, demographic, and cultural factors affect fertility differently, in either direction or magnitude, for men and women. This work situates the study of male fertility within the existing demographic literature, models and compares male and female fertility through the use of a variety of dependent and independent variables, discovers which of those variables reveal a difference between the determinants of male and female fertility, and extends understanding of how male fertility should be studied in addition to and alongside female fertility. Although there is a significant literature on the biological and anatomic components of male fertility, there is little work published on the social and cultural factors that affect male fertility. Comparisons of male and female fertility are also lacking within the discipline of demography. The National Survey of Family Growth (Cycle 7) provides survey data on both men and women on a number of social, cultural, and demographic variables used either on their own, or as components in the construction of indicator variables. I present the results of models utilizing both direct and indirect measures of fertility. Three models are direct measures of fertility, and three other indirect models examine behaviors as a measure of exposure to the risk of fertility. Only four of these models were significant under the initial analysis. Within each of the models, the respondent0́9s age, poverty level, age at first intercourse, and whether the respondent ever married or cohabited presented the most frequent differences, in either direction, magnitude, or both, between males and females. I discuss the implications of the findings presented in the dissertation, as well as the potential for future research using other data or methods.

This volume challenges the orthodox position on two of the main themes in fertility transition studies: the inevitable link between fewer children and quality of life and the focus on women as the sole important objects of study. In an era of unprecedented fertility decline, there is increasing concern about the lessening worldwide role that men play in the upbringing of children. The immense worldwide variation in the timing and sequencing of a man's life course events, the rise and fall in personal forunes, and the weight of society's hierarchies, all combine to affect the number of children a man fathers, when he fathers them, the number of partners he fathers them with, and the kind of support and recognition he bestows on them. The cross-disciplinary approach favoured here, including ethnographies, national surveys, and historical texts, avoids the narrow focus of many fertility studies texts. By providing detailed studies on a variety of countries ranging from Germany to Papua New Guinea, the contributors build an accurate picture of the global situation, while two Overview chapters give a wider perspective, and the Introduction synthesizes the themes identified and conclusions reached.

Recent years have seen many changes in human reproduction resulting from state and medical interventions in childbearing processes. Based on empirical work in a variety of societies and countries, this volume considers the relationship between reproductive processes (of fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period) on the one hand and attitudes, medical technologies and state health policies in diverse cultural contexts on the other. Maya Unnithan-Kumar is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sussex. Her research in the early 1990s focused on kinship and gender relations in northwest India and appeared as Identity, Gender and Poverty (Berghahn Books 1997).

This four-volume collection of over 140 original chapters covers virtually everything of interest to demographers, sociologists, and others. Over 100 authors present population subjects in ways that provoke thinking and lead to the creation of new perspectives, not just facts and equations to be memorized. The articles follow a theory-methods-applications approach and so offer a kind of "one-stop shop" that is well suited for students and professors who need non-technical summaries, such as political scientists, public affairs specialists, and others. Unlike shorter handbooks, Demography: Analysis and Synthesis offers a long overdue, thorough treatment of the field. Choosing the analytical method that fits the data and the situation requires insights that the authors and editors of Demography: Analysis and Synthesis have explored and developed. This extended examination of demographic tools not only seeks to explain the analytical tools themselves, but also the relationships between general population dynamics and their natural, economic, social, political, and cultural environments. Limiting themselves to human populations only, the authors and editors cover subjects that range from the core building blocks of population change--fertility, mortality, and migration--to the consequences of demographic changes in the biological and health fields, population theories and doctrines, observation systems, and the teaching of demography. The international perspectives brought to these subjects is vital for those who want an unbiased, rounded overview of these complex, multifaceted subjects. Topics to be covered: * Population Dynamics and the Relationship Between Population Growth and Structure * The Determinants of Fertility * The Determinants of Mortality * The Determinants of Migration * Historical and Geographical Determinants of Population * The Effects of Population on Health, Economics, Culture, and the Environment * Population Policies * Data Collection Methods and Teaching about Population Studies * All chapters share a common format * Each chapter features several cross-references to other chapters * Tables, charts, and other non-text features are widespread * Each chapter contains at least 30 bibliographic citations

These essays examine the global impact of infertility as a major reproductive health issue, one that has profoundly affected the lives of countless women and men. The contributors address a range of topics including how the deeply gendered nature of infertility sets the blame on women's shoulders.

Fragmented Families addresses a central question in the demographic debates on poverty and fertility transition in southern Africa:. In what ways do women's recurrent encounters with poverty serve to shape their sexual unions, social relationships and reproductive practices? The book focuses on the lives of a group of mothers and daughters from fifteen families in a demarcated part of the Winterveld area in South Africa, and draws attention to historical, socio-cultural, political and economic concerns in order to place in context or make sense of reproductive dynamics and family life at the micro-level. Vignettes, drawn from fieldwork, highlight the particularities of the area: the persistence of historical tensions, diverse livelihoods and complex gender relationships. The intergenerational stories of the women suggest that they live with immense and increasing adversity and that strategies to contend with them sometimes include attempts to assert control over sexual encounters and reproductive outcomes. The book contributes to a continuing debate on how changing socio-economic conditions could influence prospects for and the nature of fertility transition in African countries. The study concurs with alternative arguments that shifts toward lower levels of fertility might be due, in certain contexts, to experiences of severe hardship rather than favourable economic circumstances. Instead of seeking security and risk-aversion through bearing many children the response of indigent women in this area has been largely to resist reproduction, at particular stages of their lives, whilst using sexual relationships and child-bearing as strategies to manipulate and secure resources. In reflecting on methodological approaches, the book draws attention to the limitations of survey research in efforts to elicit 'accurate' representations of reproductive behaviour and fertility preferences, and emphasises the usefulness of more engaged, qualitative and long-term fieldwork endeavours in building substantive insights on women's familial and reproductive lives.

Families are the cornerstone of Chinese society, whether in mainland China, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaysia, or in the Chinese diaspora the world over. Handbook of the Chinese Family provides an overview of economics, politics, race, ethnicity, and culture within and external to the Chinese family as a social institution. While simultaneously evaluating its own methodological tools, this book will set current knowledge in the context of what has been previously studied as well as future research directions. It will examine inter-family relationships and politics as well as childrearing, education, and family economics to provide a rounded and in-depth view.

Foreign assistance by the United States is tangled with domestic politics, and perhaps this is most clear in relation to funding for health and family planning. The long arm of U.S. domestic politics has reached the intimate lives of women all over the world because it has threatened major cuts in funding to healthcare organizations in developing countries if they perform or promote abortions. This "global gag rule," so-called because to even mention abortion endangers funding, has been a hallmark of Republican administrations since it was first enacted by President Ronald Reagan. When Donald Trump reinstated and expanded the policy, there was popular uproar and a firestorm of debate. Proponents of the policy emphasize the importance of reducing the number of abortions globally and claim that the gag rule will be effective in achieving this goal. In this innovative book, Yana van der Meulen Rodgers argues that the gag rule has failed to achieve its goal of reducing abortions. Rather, the restrictive legislation is associated with higher abortion rates, and because the reduction in funding is indiscriminate there are negative repercussions across a range of health outcomes for women, children, and men. While the rhetoric in media discourse has been extreme, Rodgers provides systematic analysis of how the global gag rule affects women's reproductive health across developing regions, grounded in a conceptual framework that models the complex factors that influence women's decision making about fertility. She also traces the background to American policy, the evolution of international family planning programs, the links between contraceptive access and fertility rates, and the relationship between restrictive abortion laws and abortion rates. And because Rodgers provides a rounded perspective on factors influencing women's decisions on reproduction and abortion, she offers a constructive and cost-effective approach for U.S. family planning assistance that targets integrated reproductive health services.