REPRODUCTIVE MISHAPS AND WESTERN CONTRACEPTION - AN AFRICAN CHALLENGETO FERTILITY THEORY

This article examines findings from rural Gambia that contradict Weste rn views of the behavioral dynamics of high-fertility regimes. Finding s on contraceptive use following miscarriages, stillbirths, and child deaths in rural Gambia contradict conventional child spacing explanati ons of contraceptive use in Africa. Examining these and other anomalie s that challenge Western views of the dynamics of high-fertility regim es, this article demonstrates that rural Gambians do not perceive fema le reproductivity to be limited by chronological age or time. Instead, they view reproductive potential as a finite bodily capacity that can be exhausted well before menopause. Linking the processes of reproduc tion and senescence, the authors show that views of the cumulative rep roductive tolls over the life course closely converge with the medical and biological entailments to high fertility. Looking through a fresh cultural lens at how Western population science has come to analyze f ertility, the article shows that the Gambian view of the full range of ''costs'' of high fertility under difficult economic and medical cond itions holds important lessons for fertility theory.