L12: Geography, Politics and Culture

Question 1

Define fecundity:

Answer 1

• Physiological capability of a woman/couple to produce a live birth

Question 2

Define fertility:

Answer 2

• Number of live births actually achieved by a woman/couple/population

Question 3

Name 2 cohort measures of fertility:

Answer 3

• Completed fertility
• Parity progression ratio

Question 4

Name 4 chronological measures of fertility:

Answer 4

• Crude birth rate (CBR)
• General fertility rate (GFR)
• Age specific fertility rate (ASFR)
• Total fertility rate (TFR/TF)

Question 5

Swann et al. 2017 findings:

Answer 5

• Average sperm count among western men has more than halved in last 40 years
• Attributes large part of this to sex hormone agonists

Question 6

How is birth data routinely collected? (x3)

Answer 6

• Registration systems (vital event registers or population registers)
• Census questions
• Surveys

Question 7

Name some key surveys for fertility in the last 50 years:

Answer 7

• World fertility surveys (70s, 80s)
• Contraceptive Prevalence survey (1975)
• Maternal & Child health/family planning (80s)
• Reproductive health survey (80s)
• Demographic and health surveys (1985)

Question 8

Describe completed fertility, and list some advantages and pitfalls of this approach to measuring fertility:

Answer 8

• Average number of children per woman in her lifetime (snapshot)
• e.g. from surveys or medical histories
• Reports actual not predicted data
• Retrospective approach -> differences in reporting, memory issues, survivor bias
• Does not account for nuance e.g. migrancy
• Slow to detect change

Question 9

Describe parity progression ratio; discuss some advantages and pitfalls of this approach:

Answer 9

• Proportion of women or couples with at least ‘n’ children who go on to have at least one more child (n + 1)
• Predictive of likely future patterns
• Does not account for certain subsections such as single people
• Suffers from similar issue to completed fertility due to being a cohort, retrospective measure

Question 10

Describe crude birth rate; list some advantages and disadvantages:

Answer 10

• Ratio of live births over a period to the average population during that time (usually at mid point)
• Expressed as births per 1000 population
• Easy to calculate and understand
• However, requires universal vital registration, and accurate censuses
• Affected by changing mortality and migration

Question 11

Describe general fertility rate; list some advantages and disadvantages:

Answer 11

• Births in period/N of women of reproductive age (15 - 49) at mid period x 1000
• Sensitive to short term changes including migration
• However, requires universal vital registration and accurate censuses OR HDSS

Question 12

What is an HDSS?

Answer 12

• Health and demographic surveillance system
• Set up in a particular region, lots in sub-saharan africa
• Gathers longitudinal data on a dynamic population

Question 13

What is age-specific fertility rate?

Answer 13

• (Births to women aged x / N of women in age grp x at mid period) x 1000
• Doesn’t require universal vital registration or accurate surveys; sample surveys are an effective proxy
• Retrospective, but only over a short period

Question 14

Give an example of a synthetic cohort measure of fertility:

Answer 14

• Total fertility rate
• Predicts number of children who would be born per woman if she lived to end of childbearing years and bore children in accordance with prevailing age-specific fertility rates
• Calculated by sum of ASFR at each period x length of period/woman

Question 15

Advantages and disadvantages of TFR as as a fertility measure:

Answer 15

• Easily comparable, and comprehensible (a proxy for births per woman)
• However, it is a synthesis and does not actually represent any specific woman or cohort

Question 16

What is an overall downside of using demographic fertility measures?

Answer 16

• They work effectively as predictive devices for the global north
• For the global south, they were designed not just to predict, but to engineer future trends
• e.g. OPR, UNFPA
• Not effective measures for global south; they are engaging with fertility decline in a different phase of human history (e.g. differing attitudes towards family, contraception, folk medicine, sterilization)

Question 17

Why is sub-saharan Africa of particular interest to population demographers?

Answer 17

• Fertility remained consistently high despite the rollout of family planning policies/programme in some regions (e.g. Nigeria)
• Fertility decline in around 20 African countries stalled in the 1990s and 2000s (e.g. Kenya)
• Researchers in the 90s came to realise that fertility is not a merely biological variable, but also political and cultural

Question 18

Outline the findings of Bledsoe et al. on cultural approach to contraceptive use (2002):

Answer 18

• The Gambian women the group studied often did not share Westernised view of ageing (linear passage of time), and instead saw aging on contingent upon ‘wearing out’ of body’s resources, particularly by activities like pregnancy and breastfeeding
• They thus used child spacing via contraceptive use as a way to maximise fertility and defer aging
• Thought of using contraceptives as a way to rest their bodies and ultimately increase health and reproductive potential

Question 19

Law of bisisi in historic Tanzania:

Answer 19

• Region of Buhaya experienced high primary and secondary sterility until 1960s, as well as high infant mortality rate
• 19thC childless king created the law to ensure heir
• Claims that a child is conceived during the first sex after marriage/delivery
• Childless men able to divorce wives then claim the offspring of the woman’s next union

Question 20

Attitudes to premarital pregnancy in historic Uganda:

Answer 20

• Low fertility meant that lower status women could displace legitimately married wives if fruitful (region of Buganda)
• (Informed by 19thC proverb)
• Girls who became pregnant before marriage seen as positive (could garner high bridewealth) instead of bringing shame

Question 21

Woman-to-woman marriage in historic Kenya:

Answer 21

• High degree of female autonomy; senior wealthy woman could act as ‘husband’ and pay bridewealth in order to marry young fertile woman -> arranged for insemination in order to obtain children
• This method of surrogacy was common until the 1990s when it died out due to Christian conservatism

Question 22

+ Trends in contraceptive use and fertility following introduction of family planning to 2019:

Answer 22

• Global fertility decline, which is projected to continue
• Relatively slower decline in fertility in sub-Saharan Africa, occurring later
• General increase in use of contraceptives (mostly modern methods)

Question 23

+ United Nations predicted population growth by region:

Answer 23

• Australia, NZ, Oceania, Europe: Steady
• Latin America, Eastern/South-Eastern Asia, Central and Southern Asia: Decrease
• North Africa, West Asia: Somewhat increased
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Dramatic increase (~1 billion in 2019 to ~4 billion in 2100)