We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2009
Parenting Effort and the Theory of Allocation
In this chapter I begin the search for strategies relating to parenting effort by examining links between the high parity, Pre-Transitional demographic behavior of rural Gambian populations already referenced in Chapter 1 (Bledsoe and Hill 1998; Bledsoe, Banja, and Hill 1995, 1998; Bledsoe 2002) and evolutionary ecology's Theory of Allocation. This is followed by a discussion of parental strategies predicted by the Trivers – Willard Theory of Sex-Biased Parental Investment (Trivers and Willard 1972, 1973). Subsequent sections focus on parental effort as inheritance strategies, beginning with consideration of the demographic and larger social effects of primogeniture in historic Europe. The concluding section presents the culture–biology debate surrounding infanticide and child abandonment, utilizing historic European and contemporary Asian data.
In Chapter 1, I described Bledsoe and Hill's (1998) study of the resumption of postpartum sexual relationships among Gambian populations as an example of anthropological demography's concern with individual strategies operating within the context of both local and international cultures. Working with data from the same populations, Bledsoe (2002; also see Bledsoe et al. 1998) discovered a small sample of women using Western contraceptives (in this case Depo-Provera injections) immediately following miscarriages or stillbirths. In a population where high fertility is intensely desired, such behavior is highly unusual, clashing with Western concepts of high fertility, natural fertility, or parity-independent populations commonly applied to Pre-Transitional fertility regimes.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
