An edition of Contingent Lives (2002)
Contingent Lives
Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa (Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture Series)
By Caroline H. Bledsoe
Publish Date
July 1, 2002
Publisher
University Of Chicago Press
Language
eng
Pages
416
Description:
Most women in the West use contraceptives in order to avoid having children. But in rural Gambia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, many women use contraceptives for the opposite reason - to have as many children as possible. Using ethnographic and demographic data from a three-year study in rural Gambia, 'Contingent Lives' explains this seemingly counterintuitive fact by juxtaposing two very different understandings of the life course: one is a linear, Western model that equates ageing and the ability to reproduce with the passage of time, the other a Gambian model that views ageing as contingent on the cumulative physical, social, and spiritual hardships of personal history, especially obstetric trauma.
subjects: Gezinsgrootte, Fécondité humaine, Aspect social, Family size, Reproduction, Anticonceptie, Sociale aspecten, Abortion & Birth Control, SOCIAL SCIENCE, Social aspects, Human Fertility, Famille, Society, Dimension, Geburtenregelung, Birth control, Vruchtbaarheid, Family Planning Services, Régulation des naissances, Fertility, human, Familles, Services de planification familiale