Description
Book SynopsisFewer Men, More Babies re-evaluates the debate over family patterns in the Caribbean with respect to the critical importance that child labor plays in peasant household livelihood strategies. Earlier anthropologists widely accepted and provided empirical evidence that the contributions made by children to the peasant household labor pool was a significant determinant of social patterns and high birth rates. In the 1960s researchers began to dismiss the economic utility of children. Children were conceptualized as economic burdens, wanted for emotional, religious, and cultural reasons. This ideational trend emerged in the context of changes in Western economies and corresponding shifts in ideology; it reflected agendas promoted and exported to the developing world by aid agencies; and it derailed the refinement of academic models that explain kinship and high fertility. This shortcoming is especially evident in the Caribbean. Based on original ethnographic research, this book demonstr
Trade ReviewSchwartz challenges prevailing wisdom in the field of demography with a strong set of data. He shows the relationship between marriage, family, fertility, agriculture, and emigration in rural Haiti. He relates beliefs with behavior and opportunities and strategies for living. In the process he makes much sense of rural Haitian life and shows how the Haitian pattern he outlines can be seen in other islands of the Caribbean too. -- Bill Wedenoja, Missouri State University
Rich, sophisticated, authentic, provocative, the work of a genuine anthropologist. -- Robert Lawless, Wichita State University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Review of the Literature Chapter 3 The Commune of Jean Rabel Chapter 4 Extremely High Fertility Chapter 5 The Pronatal Sociocultural Fertility Complex Chapter 6 The Sexual Moral Economy Chapter 7 House, Yard, and Market Chapter 8 Farming and Household-Based Production Chapter 9 Fishing Chapter 10 Work, Craftsmen, and Marketing Specialists Chapter 11 Labor Demands Chapter 12 Gender and Age-Based Divisions of Labor Chapter 13 What Parents Have to Say about the Economic Utility of Children Chapter 14 Raising Children and Control over Child Labor Activities Chapter 15 Conjugal Union and the Formation of the Household Chapter 16 Polygyny, Progeny, and Production Chapter 17 Caribbean Family Patterns Chapter 18 Fewer Men, More Babies Chapter 19 A Reflexive and Critical Look at the Anthropology of the Caribbean
