The Pattern of Reproductive Life in a Berber Population of Morocco
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The Pattern of Reproductive Life in a Berber Population of Morocco aEmile Crognier, bCristina Bernis, aSilvia Elizondo, and bCarlos Varea aCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Equipe de Recherche 221 "Dynamique biocul- turelle," 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France; and bUnidad de Antropología, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciéncias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 34, Spain ABSTRACT: Reproductive patterns were studied from data collected in 1,450 Berber households in the province of Marrakesh, Morocco in 1984. Women aged 45-49 years had a mean of 8.9 pregnancies to achieve 5.7 living children. Social influences on fertility rates show the importance of tradition, particularly through time-dependent variables such as age at marriage, waiting time to first birth, interbirth intervals, and duration of breastfeeding. Birth control does not appear to affect the tempo of fertility; rather, its main use is to bring the reproductive period to a close. The comparison of two subsamples of women separated by a 25-year interval indicates an actual acceleration of the tempo of fertility by the reduction of waiting time to first birth and of interbirth intervals. The supposed ongoing process of demographic transition is not clearly observed in this population. Nagi (1983), analyzing the numer- thousand, respectively), and Tunisia ous studies performed in Muslim coun- (46 and 28.2 per thousand). In spite of tries on fertility trends and their effects a drop of some 28 per cent in 23 years, upon demography and social struc- Moroccan fertility remains high. The tures, questioned whether there was mean data available for urban and any evidence of a demographic transi- rural areas in the province of Marra- tion in these societies, since fertility kesh still average 6.5 and 8.3 full-term rates remain high despite economic births per woman, respectively, at the development and a drop in mortality end of reproductive life (Crognier and rates. Therefore, Nagi proposed a sep- Zarouf, 1987; Crognier, 1989). arate concept of family—its place and The present work analyzes data of significance in social life as well as its reproductive life collected in the south- size—for Muslim countries in compar- ern part of the province of Marrakesh Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 20:40 31 December 2014 ison with Western societies. from a Berber population ranging from Morocco, like other Muslim nations the piedmont of the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, has undergone eco- to an altitude of about 2,500 feet. nomic and social changes since mid- Though predominantly rural, this sam- century, which began in the main cities ple also includes the population of a and their surroundings and gradually small town at a primary level of urban- involved more remote areas. Parallel- ization. ing this evolution, the crude birth rate dropped from 49 per thousand in 1965 to 35.3 per thousand in 1987 (U.N., MATERIALS AND METHODS 1990), an intermediary position com- General information about socio- pared with Algeria (50 and 47.2 per economic conditions, cultural behav- 191 192 Crognier et al. Social Biology ior, and medical assistance was col- suitable for sophisticated analysis, in lected in 1,450 households of the particular for model fitting. "circle" of Amizmiz, an administrative subdivision of the province of Mar- rakesh. At the same time the reproduc- RESULTS tive history of each woman in the household was traced, including age at MAIN REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS menarche, age at first marriage, age at Table 1 shows the cumulated means menopause, waiting time to first birth, of total births, of spontaneous abor- successive pregnancies with their out- tions, of stillbirths, of live births, and comes, sex of the children, conditions of children dead and alive at the time of parturition, durations of lactation, of investigation in each female age and the children's vaccinations, pres- class. ent ages or age at death and the cause The discrepancy between fertility of death, and contraceptive practice scores of women aged 45-49 years and during interbirth intervals. those of the last age class may illustrate The investigations were conducted differential reproductive success re- during two successive field trips. The lated to the improvement of living con- first, in October 1984, was part of a ditions. However, it is probably a re- general fertility survey in Marrakesh. flection of memory lapses resulting One household out of ten in areas ac- from the extensive number of repro- cessible to district nurses was sampled, ductive events. resulting in 843 records (618 in villages The high level of fertility is com- and 225 in the town of Amizmiz). This bined with a high rate of infant and ju- sampling covered the lowlands of the venile mortality. Women aged 45-49 area up to an altitude of 1,500 feet. The years have a mean of 8.9 pregnancies second field trip aimed at gathering in- to achieve a mean of 5.7 living chil- formation about communities settled dren. This profile seems close to "nat- in mountain valleys far more difficult ural fertility" (Henry, 1961), i.e., with to access. It included nine villages scat- no contraception or induced abortion, tered in the valley of Azgour (at an al- in spite of the intense governmental titude of from 2,200 to 2,500 feet) policy of family planning developed which were exhaustively investigated from 1968-72 onward. Although 40 Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 20:40 31 December 2014 during July of 1986 and of 1987 (Naber, per cent of women in the sample de- 1989), resulting in 607 records. The clare that they are using or have used overall sampling should provide a good contraception, this record is a poor one record of living conditions and repro- if we consider that since the 70's con- ductive behaviors in this homogenous traceptives (the pill) have been freely Berber-speaking area. distributed. The proportion of contra- Since people in this area do not ceptors also varies with age, ranging record reproductive events and birth from 34 per cent in the women's age registers are imprecise, the data are an class 15-19 years up to 60 per cent in approximation of ages or spans of time the age range 25-45, when women (in years or months). The resulting in- have already experienced 3 to 9 preg- formation, though well checked, is not nancies. In its present use, contracep- Vol. 40, No. 3-4 Berber Population 193 TABLE 1 MAIN CUMULATED CHARACTERISTICS OF REPRODUCTIVE LIFE: MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS BY AGE OF WOMEN Total No. Live No. Still- No. Spont. No. Child. No. Child. Age No. Binhs Births births Abort. Alive Dead 15-19 0.91 0.85 0.06 0.11 0.71 0.23 (0.80) (0.75) (0.25) (0.32) (0.62) (0.48) 20-24 1.95 1.79 0.14 0.10 1.41 0.55 (1.22) (1.16) (0.42) (0.47) (1.03) (0.81) 25-29 3.46 3.26 0.20 0.19 2.52 0.98 (1.91) (1.81) (0.56) (0.59) (1.48) (1.20) 30-34 5.11 4.88 0.22 0.27 3.63 1.51 (2.11) (2.06) (0.61) (0.62) (1.55) (1.52) 35-39 6.54 6.20 0.31 0.36 4.59 2.0 (2.63) (2.62) (0.79) (0.79) (2.09) (1.71) 40-44 7.54 7.15 0.36 0.39 5.13 2.45 (2.88) (2.82) (1.02) (0.81) (2.22) (2.27) 45-49 8.40 8.13 0.27 0.38 5.67 2.73 (2.64) (2.66) (0.84) (0.76) (2.35) (2.10) >50 7.30 6.82 0.46 0.52 4.55 2.87 (3.55) (3.50) (0.97) (1.03) (2.62) (2.13) tion therefore mainly regulates the late In particular, polygyny affects repro- reproductive period. duction for a variety of reasons, in- cluding a different social selection of BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL mates, a higher frequency of sterility, a DETERMINANTS OF FERTILITY higher lability of union, etc. (White, In most societies, the effective onset 1982; Ahmed, 1986; Bean and Mineau, of reproductive life is subsequent to a 1986; Pison, 1986; Pison, 1986; Ade- social event—marriage. Age at mar- wuyi, 1988; Johnson and Elmi, 1989). riage is therefore a major determinant Most observations indicate a negative of fertility. When identified with the association of polygyny with female cu- Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 20:40 31 December 2014 function of procreation, it entails that mulative fertility, at the group level. the waiting time to first birth only ex- Polygyny is practiced in Morocco, presses the latency resulting from the and polygynous matings are 11.5 per addition of the time to fecundation and cent of the present material. They will the duration of pregnancy. In many be considered separately in the follow- traditional societies, moreover, the age ing analysis. at marriage is closely related to physi- The mean recollected age at men- cal development, so that age at men- arche (14.5 years) is still late in this arche and age at marriage are highly population (Table 2) although coher- correlated.. ent with a previous estimate by the Besides the age at marriage, the status-quo method for the city of Mar- type of union affects reproductive life. rakesh (14.10 years, Loukid, 1989). 194 Crognier et al. Social Biology TABLE 2 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF WOMEN'S AGE, AGE AT MENARCHE, AGE AT MARRIAGE, WAITING TIME TO FIRST BIRTH, AGE AT FIRST BIRTH, AND REPRODUCTIVE SPAN Wait.