How Modernization Can Also Increase Fertility [and Comments and Reply]
Industrialization, urbanization, and other associated processes of modernization generally lead to a reduction of fertility through the practice of birth control (contraception and induced abortion) and delayed age at marriage. The evidence reviewed in this paper demonstrates that these same process...
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| Published in: | Current anthropology Vol. 21; no. 5; pp. 571 - 587 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Chicago Press
01-10-1980
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Industrialization, urbanization, and other associated processes of modernization generally lead to a reduction of fertility through the practice of birth control (contraception and induced abortion) and delayed age at marriage. The evidence reviewed in this paper demonstrates that these same processes may also have some fertility-increasing effects. Birth rate data for a few countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia clearly exhibit an increase in fertility in the early stages of modernization. Four factors related to modernization are found to have contributed more than others toward an increase in fertility: (1) earlier postpartum resumption of ovulation and menstruation as a result of decreased breast-feeding, (2) decline in the practice of postpartum abstinence, (3) reduction in the loss of reproductive performance of women caused by early widowhood, (4) reduction in the incidence of sterility as a result of the improved treatment of venereal diseases. Adequately nourished women have earlier menarcheal age and shorter periods of amenorrhea than undernourished women, but these differences seem to have little impact on actual fertility differentials. In addition, level of nutrition does not seem to be a major determinant of miscarriage and stillbirth. Hence, improvement in the nutrition of malnourished women is not likely to increase their fecundity/fertility significantly. In making predictions about fertility and in evaluating the fertility impact of any development or family-planning program, the fertility-increasing effects of modernization are often overlooked. This paper argues that the tendency of fertility levels to remain the same or even to rise in the short run should not necessarily be interpreted as the failure of such programs. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 0011-3204 1537-5382 |
| DOI: | 10.1086/202538 |