Fertility and Resources

In this book, the gap between socioecology and population demography is bridged, by showing how animals and humans adjust their fertility to environmental conditions.

Fertility in animals reflects access to scarce resources, such as food and territory. In humans the situation is more complex. Patterns of breast feeding, contraception and ideas about age at marriage and desired family size all affect fertility. The relation between these and access to scarce resources such as housing and employment, via income, education and other factors that affect status, is explored. In this book, the gap between socio-ecology and population demography is bridged, by showing how animals and humans adjust their fertility to environmental conditions.

List of contributors; 1. Introduction J. Landers and V. Reynolds; 2. Environmental and social determinants of fecundity in primates R. I. M. Dunbar; 3. Biological aspects of fertility among Third World populations L. Rosetta; 4. A preliminary report on fertility and socioeconomic changes in two Papua New Guinea communities T. Taufa, V. Mea and J. Lourie; 5. The cultural context of fertility transition in immigrant Mennonites J. C. Stevenson and P. M. Everson; 6. Inter-relationships between consanguinity, religion and fertility in Karnataka, South India A. H. Bittles, A. Radha Rama Devi and N. Appaji Rao; 7. Resources and the fertility transition in the countryside of England and Wales P. R. A. Hinde; 8. Fertility decline and birth spacing among London Quakers J. Landers; 9. Population growth, innovation and resource exploitation E. Boserup; 10. Fertility decline in developing countries: the roles of economic modernisation, culture and Government interventions J. Cleland; 11. Understanding recent fertility trends in the Third World A. G. Hill; 12. Monogamy, landed property and demographic regimes in pre-industrial Europe: regional contrasts and temporal stabilities R. M. Smith; Index.

Fertility in animals reflects access to scarce resources, such as food and territory. In humans the situation is more complex. In this book, the gap between socio-ecology and population demography is bridged, by showing how animals and humans adjust their fertility to environmental conditions.