BEHAVIORAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN TRADITIONAL MOROCCAN BERBER GROUPS

The reproductive histories of women aged 45-70 years from a homogeneou s Berber population of South Morocco were sampled from three contrasti ng environments: a small town (n = 75), villages in the lowlands (n = 217), and villages in the highlands (n = 128). The main reproductive v ariables oppose the relatively better conditions of fertile life in th e lowlands to the more hostile ones in the highlands. Path analysis co nfirms this difference through reproductive behaviors and suggests the existence of mechanisms for controlling family size in town and in th e rural lowlands, but not in the highlands. The estimates of survival function show significant differences among the three groups, the cond itions for survival in the highlands being clearly less favorable. Ran k tests of the association of survival data with several covariates in dicate the association of survival data with vaccinations and with con ditions of delivery. In spite of the lower rate of offspring survival, the highlander group would demonstrate a higher overall number of chi ldren reaching reproductive maturity, thanks to an extended reproducti ve span. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.