Sex, Family & Fertility in Haiti

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Sex, Family & Fertility in Haiti Sex, Family & Fertility in Haiti by Timothy T. Schwartz ***** First published in Hardback in 2008 by Lexington Books as, “Fewer Men, More Babies: Sex, family and fertility in Haiti. All Rights Reserved. Scholars, students, and critics may use excerpts as long as they cite the source. 2nd Edition published January 2011 ISBN 10 146812966X ISBN 13 9781468129663 Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Fertility .................................................................................................... 13 Table 1.1: Total fertility rates in Haiti (TFR) ........................................................................... 13 Kinship and Family Patterns ..................................................................................................... 14 NGOs and Paradigmatic Shift of Anthropology ....................................................................... 15 Jean Rabel and the Sociocultural Fertility Complex ................................................................. 15 The Research ............................................................................................................................. 17 The Baseline Survey ............................................................................................................. 17 The Opinion Survey .............................................................................................................. 18 Household Labor Demands Survey ...................................................................................... 18 Livestock and Garden Survey ............................................................................................... 18 Polygyny Survey ................................................................................................................... 19 Clinics and NGO Reports ..................................................................................................... 19 Overview of the Book ........................................................................................................... 20 Conclusion and Importance of the Research ............................................................................ 21 Notes ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 2 Review of the Literature: The Neglected Half of Chayanov’s Rule ............................ 23 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 23 The Neglected Half of Chayanov’s Rule .................................................................................. 23 Pronatalism in the Caribbean .................................................................................................... 25 Child Labor and Pronatalism in Haiti ....................................................................................... 29 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 31 Notes ......................................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 33 The Commune of Jean Rabel ........................................................................................................ 33 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 33 Geography ................................................................................................................................. 33 Deforestation and Erosion......................................................................................................... 34 Droughts and Hurricanes and Adaptation ................................................................................. 34 Table 3.1: Major natural disasters in Jean Rabel since 1921 .................................................... 34 Figure 3.1: Historic Regional Rainfall by year (1921-1950) (in millimeters) .......................... 35 Figure 3.2: Historic Regional Rainfall by year (1965-1969, 1978-1996) (in millimeters)...... 36 Infrastructure ............................................................................................................................. 37 The Village................................................................................................................................ 38 Houses, Settlement Patterns, and Transportation ..................................................................... 38 Figure 3.3: Years of school for respondents over eighteen years of age .................................. 38 Table 3.2: Transport Vehicles ................................................................................................... 39 Malnutrition and Disease .......................................................................................................... 40 Table 3.3: Offspring deceased by children born (per mother) .................................................. 40 Migration................................................................................................................................... 40 Table 3.4: Migration of the offspring of owners of irrigated land ............................................ 41 Table 3.5: Current location of circa 1960 villagers and their offspring .................................... 42 Population Growth, Fertility, and Contraceptive Campaigns ................................................... 42 Table 3.6: Contraceptive knowledge and use ........................................................................... 42 Table 3.7: Women using contraceptives in Far-West 1998–1999 (15 to 49 yrs) 9 .................. 43 Table 3.8: Population of Jean Rabel in the years 1780–1997* ................................................. 44 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 44 Notes ......................................................................................................................................... 44 Table 3.9: Knowledge of contraceptive methods (N = 1,132) .................................................. 45 Chapter 4 Extremely High Fertility ............................................................................................. 47 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 4.1: Completed fertility in Jean Rabel for women over 45 yrs ..................................... 47 Factors that Dampen Fertility ................................................................................................... 48 Table 4.1: Most commonly eaten foods in Jean Rabel (N=1,483) ........................................... 48 Figure 4.2: Completed fertility in Jean Rabel for five-year age groups ................................... 49 Figure 4.3: Duration of breastfeeding ....................................................................................... 49 Table 4.2: Mean age of follow-up survey respondents ............................................................. 50 Table 4.3: Temporary male migration in Jean Rabel ................................................................ 51 Table 4.4: Individuals still with first spouse ............................................................................. 51 Jean Rabel Women vs. Hutterite Women ................................................................................. 51 Table 4.5: Hutterites vs. Jean Rabeliens: Percentage of women in union per five-year age group and sex ratios (includes widows) .................................................................................... 52 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 53 Notes ......................................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 5 The Pronatal Sociocultural Fertility Complex ............................................................. 55 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 55 Attitudes toward Contraceptives ............................................................................................... 56 Abortion .................................................................................................................................... 56 Pregnancy .................................................................................................................................. 57 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 58 Notes ......................................................................................................................................... 58 Healthy .................................................................................................................................. 59 Dangerous ............................................................................................................................
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