Fertility Behaviour

Fertility Behaviour: Population and Society in a Rajasthan Village is an important book as it explores the urgent and highly sensitive demographical problem of fertility behaviour through the intensive fieldwork method of social anthropology. It is a useful combination of the disciplines of demography and social anthropology. Tulsi Patel has studied a small village in the populous state of Rajasthan. In addition to the method of participant observation she has used village census, retrospective fertility histories of women, genealogies and case studies of men and women to interpret fertility trends. According to the author, objective conditions of life which include changes in the larger social order are importantly linked to the subjective orientations of people. This in turn influences norms regarding fertility behaviour. The importance of intensive studies of small communities such as this one, which are able to identify specific problems is therefore self evident. The author also looks at the 'fertility career' of a couple in relation to the different stages of development of the household.

This is an indispensable book for all who are distressed by the manner in which population is growing on our part of the globe, but specially for, policy makers in government departments, administrators and researchers. Tulsi Patel teaches at the University of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi.