A comparative study of fertility declines occurring in India and Brazil. It consists of 11 papers by well-known scholars from various disciplines, among them demographers, anthropologists, and economists.

"Using ethnographic methods focusing on sexual meanings as an alternative to traditional surveys of sexual behavior, Parker argues that sexual life can only be fully understood through an analysis of the cultural logics that shape experience. Drawing on the tradition of interpretive anthropology, he focuses on the diverse sexual scripts that have been articulated in Brazilian culture and examines the often contradictory ways in which these scripts shape the sexual experience of different individuals."--BOOK JACKET.