Culture and Human Fertility in India.

Examines the social and cultural underpinnings of human fertility in rural India through sociological studies of village communities published in secondary sources. It is stated that a severe limitiation of the present study is the fact that the village studies were initially conducted with a totally different purpose in view. Such studies have not dealt seriously with fertility behavior and the demographic research has failed to place fertility behavior in its proper social and cultural context. Social behavior is broken down into the domestic sphere which includes within it the ritual and religious spheres; the economic spheres; and the political sphere. The focus is on those factors which can be shown to influence fertility behavior rather than on social institutions such as kinship and marriage postpartum taboos childraising practices and socially sanctioned abstinence all of whose effect on fertility is merely incidental. Many questions are raised as a result of this review. A major issue is whether or not people consciously assess the number of children they might desire. Related to this is the question of which factors enter into the calculation which determines the optimum number of children. Finally there is the question of how people go about achieving this norm. Implications for research and policy regarding family planning programs in Indian villages are discussed.