Contingent lives : fertility, time, and aging in West Africa /

Contingent lives : fertility, time, and aging in West Africa /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Bledsoe, Caroline H.
Imprint:	Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Description:	1 online resource (xx, 396 pages) : illustrations.
Language:	English
Series:	The Lewis Henry Morgan lectures ; 1999 Lewis Henry Morgan lectures ; 1999.
Subject:	Birth control -- Gambia. Family size -- Gambia. Fertility, Human -- Social aspects -- Gambia. Family Planning Services -- Gambia. Reproduction -- Gambia. Reproduction. Family Planning Services. Birth control. Family size. Fertility, Human -- Social aspects. Gambia. Gambia. Electronic books.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11233987

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Banja, Fatoumatta.
ISBN:	9780226058504 0226058506 0226058514 9780226058511 0226058522 9780226058528 9786612932823 6612932821
Digital file characteristics:	data file
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 357-383) and index. Unlimited Users and Download Restrictions may Apply, VLEbooks Unlimited User Licence. Available using University of Exeter Username and Password. English. Print version record.
Summary:	Most women in the West use contraceptives in order to avoid having children. But in rural Gambia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, many women use contraceptives for the opposite reason--to have as many children as possible. Using ethnographic and demographic data from a three-year study in rural Gambia, Contingent Lives explains this seemingly counterintuitive fact by juxtaposing two very different understandings of the life course: one is a linear, Western model that equates aging and the ability to reproduce with the passage of time, the other a Gambian model that views aging as continge.
Other form:	Print version: Bledsoe, Caroline H. Contingent lives. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002 0226058514

Description
Summary:	Most women in the West use contraceptives in order to avoid having children. But in rural Gambia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, many women use contraceptives for the opposite reason--to have as many children as possible.<br> <br> Using ethnographic and demographic data from a three-year study in rural Gambia, Contingent Lives explains this seemingly counterintuitive fact by juxtaposing two very different understandings of the life course: one is a linear, Western model that equates aging and the ability to reproduce with the passage of time, the other a Gambian model that views aging as contingent on the cumulative physical, social, and spiritual hardships of personal history, especially obstetric trauma. Viewing each of these two models from the perspective of the other, Caroline Bledsoe produces fresh understandings of the classical anthropological subjects of reproduction, time, and aging as culturally shaped within women's conjugal lives. Her insights will be welcomed by scholars of anthropology and demography as well as by those working in public health, development studies, gerontology, and the history of medicine.
Physical Description:	1 online resource (xx, 396 pages) : illustrations.
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 357-383) and index.
ISBN:	9780226058504 0226058506 0226058514 9780226058511 0226058522 9780226058528 9786612932823 6612932821
Access:	Unlimited Users and Download Restrictions may Apply, VLEbooks Unlimited User Licence. Available using University of Exeter Username and Password.