PRESTIGE, POSSESSIONS, AND PROGENY - CULTURAL GOALS AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AMONG THE BAKKARWAL

It has been suggested by some that the acquisition of symbolic capital in terms of honor, prestige, and power translates into an accumulatio n of material capital in terms of tangible belongings, and that on the basis of these goods high reproductive success may be achieved. Howev er, data on completed fertility rates over more than one generation in so-called traditional societies have been rare. Ethnographic and demo graphic data presented here on the pastoral Bakkarwal of northern Indi a largely corroborate the hypothesis concerning the interdependence be tween the attainment of various cultural goals and differential reprod uction rates and indicate that the numbers of (especially male) surviv ing offspring and siblings are crucial to a man's position in society.