Fertility, Conjuncture, Difference: Anthropological Approaches to the Heterogeneity of Modern Fertility Declines(36 Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives)

In the last forty years anthropologists have made major contributions to understanding the heterogeneity of reproductive trends and processes underlying them. Fertility transition, rather than the story of the triumphant spread of Western birth control rationality, reveals a diversity of reproductive means and ends continuing before, during, and after transition. This collection brings together anthropological case studies, placing them in a comparative framework of compositional demography and conjunctural action.  The volume addresses major issues of inequality and distribution which shape population and social structures, and in which fertility trends and the formation and size of families are not decided solely or primarily by reproduction.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations, Figures and Tables Preface Introduction Philip Kreager and Astrid Bochow Chapter 1. The Key to Fertility: Generation, Reproduction and Class Formation in a Namibian Community Julia Pauli Chapter 2. Becoming and Belonging in African Historical Demography, 1900-2000 Sarah Walters This chapter is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY) thanks to the support of the Wellcome Trust. Chapter 3. Between the Central Laws of Moscow and Local Particularity: The Reproduction of Subgroups in the South of Tajikistan Sophie Roche and Sophie Hohmann Chapter 4. Feeling Secure to Reproduce: Economy, Community and Fertility in Southern Europe Patrick Heady Chapter 5. Ambivalent Men: Male Dilemmas and Fertility Control in Senegal Sara Randall, Nathalie Mondain, and Alioune Diagne Chapter 6. Accounting for Reproductive Difference: Sociality, Temporality and Individuality during Pregnancy in Cameroon Erica van der Sijpt Chapter 7. Understanding Childlessness in Botswana: Reproduction and Tswana-nization of Middle-Class Identities in the Twenty-First Century Astrid Bochow Chapter 8. Low Fertility and Secret Family Planning in Lesotho Lena L. Kroeker Chapter 9. ‘The Doctor’s Way’: Traditional Contraception and Modernity in Cambodia Eleanor Hukin Chapter 10. Demographers on Culture: Fertility, Nuptiality, Family Structures Yves Charbit and Véronique Petit Chapter 11. Vital Conjunctures Revisited Jennifer A. Johnson-Hanks Index

About the Author :
Philip Kreager is Senior Research Fellow in Human Sciences, Somerville College; Director, Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology; and Reseach Associate, Department of Sociology, Oxford University. He has written extensively on the history and conceptual development of population theory and analysis in European culture, and on comparative family systems and anthropological demography.

Review :
“Philip Kreager and Astrid Bochow’s edited Fertility, conjuncture, difference is a convincing continuation of critical discussions which began in the mid-1990s about, on the one hand, using anthropological approaches in order to understand the heterogeneity of modern reproductive change and, on the other, the possibilities for creating an anthropological demography. This effort is tackled in the volume’s extraordinary introduction, in which the editors outline the innovative research strategy – combining conjunctural action and compositional difference – needed to unravel the continuing diversity of fertility world-wide.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute “These rich interdisciplinary studies show fertility decisions are not made according to rational choice economic theory and a vague concept of ‘modernity.’ Each case study here presents cultural and personal factors coalesced around reproductive decisions that women and men consider when making life decisions. The editors and contributors are to be congratulated for this splendid and insightful contribution to understanding reproductive decision making and, not least, the benefits of interdisciplinarity. Highly recommended.” • Journal of the Motherhood Initiative “This volume offers much needed empirical support to the concept of vital conjunctures, but it also provides a more theoretical discussion explaining the reproductive decision-making beyond the mere economic rationality of the actors. The fact that demographic explanations should pay closer attention to the compositional effects, achieved through the individual agency within the “multiple potential futures” stands as the biggest strength of the book.”  • Anthropological Notebooks “Outstanding. This volume follows in a distinct lineage of both historically and anthropologically-informed critical studies of the demographic analysis of fertility decline and reproductive change. It is an excellent addition to that corpus of work.” • Simon Szreter, St John’s College, Cambridge