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.

Tibetan Transitions uses the dual lenses of anthropology and demography to analyze population regulating mechanisms in traditional Tibetan societies, and to document recent transitions from high to low fertility throughout the Tibetan world. Using the author’s case studies on historical Tibet, the Tibet Autonomous Region, the highlands of Nepal, and Tibetan exile communities in South Asia, this book provides a theoretical perspective on demographic processes by linking fertility transitions with family systems, economic strategies, gender equity, and family planning ideologies. Special attention is devoted to how institutions (governmental and religious) and the agency of individuals shape reproductive outcomes in both historical and contemporary Tibetan societies, and how demographic data has been interpreted and deployed in recent political debates.

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.

Demography drives religious change. High-fertility societies, like most of contemporary Africa, tend to be fervent and devout. The lower a population's fertility rates, the greater the tendency for people to detach from organized or institutional religion. Thus, fertility rates supply an effective gauge of secularization trends. In Fertility and Faith, Philip Jenkins maps the demographic revolution that has taken hold of many countries around the globe in recent decades and explores the implications for the future development of the world's religions. Demographic change has driven the secularization of contemporary Western Europe, where the revolution began. Jenkins shows how the European trajectory of rapid declines in fertility is now affecting much of the globe. The implications are clear: the religious character of many non-European areas is highly likely to move in the direction of sweeping secularization. And this is now reshaping the United States itself. This demographic revolution is reshaping Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. In order to accommodate the new social trends, these religions must adapt to situations where large families are no longer the norm. Each religious tradition will develop distinctive emphases concerning morality, gender, and sexuality, as well as the roles of clergy and laity in the faith's institutional structures. Radical change follows great upheaval. The tidal shift is well underway. With Fertility and Faith, Philip Jenkins describes this ongoing phenomenon and envisions our collective religious future.

Revised papers originally presented at the Brown University Conference on Anthropological Demography, Nov 3-5, 1994.