Netting in Nepal: Social Change,the Life Course,and Brideservice in Sangila

The links among family characteristics, pre-marital experiences organized outside the family, and participation in choice of spouse are now well established for historical transformations in a range of social settings. Less examined are the consequences of these changes for subsequent inter-familial relationships in societies where marriage organizes kin alliances and interfamilial labor obligations. Using survey and ethnographic data gathered in Nepal, this paper examines the implications of change in work, living experiences, and the marriage process for subsequent inter-familial relationships exemplified by crosscousin marriage and the provision of brideservice. Hypotheses are developed which consider the impact of community context on these behaviors; these are tested in logistic regression analyses for the first marriages of all 430 ever-married women in the community. Cross-cousin marriage and brideservice are shown to be related to prior familial characteristics, life-course experience, and elements of the marriage process in ways that are significantly conditioned by community history and proximity to urban centers.     

Social support and distress among Q'eqchi' refugee women in Maya Tecún, Mexico

This article addresses issues of vulnerability and distress through an analysis of the relationship between social support networks and traumatic stress in a Q'eqchi' refugee community in southern Mexico. The sociopolitical violence, forced displacement, and encampment of Guatemalan Mayan populations resulted in the breakdown and dispersal of kin and community groups, leaving many Q'eqchi' women with weakened social support networks. Research involving testimonial interviews and traumatic stress and social support questionnaires revealed that Q'eqchi' refugee women with weak natal kin social support networks reported greater feelings of distress and symptoms of traumatic stress than did women with strong networks. In particular, a condition identified as muchkej emerged as one of the most significant symptoms reported by women with weak natal kin support networks. I critically consider muchkej as an idiom of distress and argue that aid organizations should consider the relationship between social support and traumatic stress, as expressed through such idioms, when attempting to identify vulnerable members of a refugee population.     

Female Choice in Humans: A Conditional Mate Selection Strategy of the Krummhörn Women (Germany, 1720–1874)

The suitors' ownership of land influenced the marriage age of the women in the Krummhörn population (Germany, 1720–1874). This led to a characteristic distribution of the categories of land ownership of husbands by the wife's age at marriage: the younger the brides, the higher was the percentage of high-status males among their bridegrooms. But the natal status of brides did not exert any significant influence on their age at marriage. Moreover, socially hypergamous women married younger than those whose marriage meant a social drop. We have interpreted these findings as the expression of a conditional female choice strategy with age-dependent decrease in demands on a marriage partner: “If you are young, be very choosy and marry only a high-quality mate; the older you become, the more you must reduce your initial standards!” On the average this strategy was adaptive, because in this population land ownership correlated with the local reproductive success of a family.     

For better or worse: Relationship status and body mass index

Recent increases in the incidence of obesity and declines in marriage have prompted policymakers to implement policies to mitigate these trends. This paper examines the link between these two outcomes. There are four hypotheses (selection, protection, social obligation and marriage market) that might explain the relationship between marital status transitions and changes in Body Mass Index (BMI). The selection hypothesis suggests that those with a lower BMI are more likely to be selected into marriage. The protection hypothesis states that married adults will have better physical health as a result of the increased social support and reduced incidence of risky behavior among married individuals. The social obligation hypothesis states that those in relationships may eat more regular meals and/or richer and denser foods due to social obligations which may arise because of marriage. Finally, the marriage market hypothesis indicates that when adults are no longer in the marriage market they may not maintain a healthy BMI because doing so is costly and they are in a stable union—or on the other hand, adults may enhance their prospects in the marriage market by losing weight. Taking advantage of longitudinal data and complete marriage histories in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we estimate individual fixed effects models to examine associations between the change in log BMI and the incidence of overweight and obesity, and changes in relationship status controlling for the effects of aging and other respondent characteristics. We find no support for the marriage protection hypothesis. Rather we find evidence supporting the social obligation and marriage market hypotheses—BMI increases for both men and women during marriage and in the course of a cohabiting relationship. Separate analyses by race and ethnicity reveal substantial differences in the response of BMI to relationship status across these groups.     

Marriage and contraception among the Pare of northern Tanzania

The purpose of the research reported here is to examine the connection between contraception and those aspects of a woman's position that are related to her marriage. The research was conducted in two villages among the Pare of northern Tanzania where a shift from hoe cultivation as primary occupation to wage labour has brought about major changes in social relations. The major hypothesis is that a change from a 'traditional' marital union to a 'companionate' marriage is instrumental in the acceptance of contraception and in lowering fertility. The latter type of relationship between marital partners is related to the status of women. The research methodology consisted of a combination of an ethnographic study, demographic surveys and in-depth interviews. Findings show that approximately half of the women in this community ever used contraception. Of current users, a third are sterilized and half are using a modern reversible method. The determining factor for using modern reversible methods is the nature of the conjugal union.     

The discursive detachment of race from gentrification in Cartagena de Indias,Colombia

In this article, I provide an ethnographic account of the gentrification process and its relationship to race and racism in the community of Getsemaní in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. I introduce Racial Attachment Processes as a conceptual framework for understanding how individuals reconcile Latin American discourses that suggest that race is not a primary stratifying principle with the material spatial realities of racial hierarchies that counter such discourses. Drawing on ethnographic participant observation and semi-structured interviews, including those employing photo-elicitation, I demonstrate how people discursively mobilize race in everyday life, yet selectively detach race in ways that allow them to interpret processes of gentrification as untethered to their racial underpinnings. This paper ultimately demonstrates how the discursive detachment of race from understandings of Colombian socio-spatial, political and economic relations obscures the relationship between racial domination and social inequality.     

Imagining the Western Husband: Thai Women's Desires for Matrimony,Status and Beauty

This article examines a group of Thai women's perceptions of western Caucasian men as ideal marriage partners and its impact on their sexual practices and relationship decisions. Based on conversations with women living in a ‘slum’ community in Bangkok, I argue that women who do not fit local ideals of light skin color, economic success and urban origins face obstacles among potential Thai suitors. Some of these women strategically prefer western suitors to local men. Through their relationship choices, these women upset local hierarchies of desire as they attempt to subvert skin color-bias and pose challenges to Thai marital traditions. At the same time, their relationship pursuits conform to gender expectations of the male breadwinner and female caretaker and may unintentionally reproduce skin color and status hierarchies. Although Thai women's sexual relationships with western men are not a new phenomena, they underscore the transnational nature of sexual desire and contemporary social change.     

HIV,Embodied Secrets,and Intimate Labour in Northern Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This article explores how HIV-positive women manage secrets through the use of their bodies. Women conspicuously enhance their beauty in an attempt to defend themselves against the violence of social exclusion. Moreover, they do so in order to forge safe, loving, and prosperous relationships with their boyfriends, husbands, and families. My goal is to understand how intimacy, as a material, affective, psychological, and embodied state, characterises these women's corporeal and sartorial acts. Further, I question how these embodied practices become imbricated in exchange relations with family members, health workers, and the larger community. To describe these routinised toils and triumphs as women seek to care for themselves and others, I employ the term ‘intimate labour’. I demonstrate how women gain access to social and economic resources by attending to and capitalising on the sensual and bodily desires and needs of others.     

Beyond Race and Place: Distal Sociological Determinants of HIV Disparities

Informed behavior change as an HIV prevention tool has yielded unequal successes across populations. Despite decades of HIV education, some individuals remain at high risk. The mainstream media often portrays these risk factors as products of race and national borders; however, a rich body of recent literature proposes a host of complex social factors that influence behavior, including, but not limited to: poverty, income inequality, stigmatizing social institutions and health care access. We examined the relationship between numerous social indicators and HIV incidence across eighty large U.S. cities in 1990 and 2000. During this time, major correlating factors included income inequality, poverty, educational attainment, residential segregation and marriage rates. However, these ecological factors were weighted differentially across risk groups (e.g. heterosexual, intravenous drug use, men who have sex with men (MSM)). Heterosexual risk rose significantly with poor economic indicators, while MSM risk depended more heavily on anti-homosexual stigma (as measured by same-sex marriage laws). HIV incidence among black individuals correlated significantly with numerous economic factors but also with segregation and imbalances in the male:female ratio (often an effect of mass incarceration). Our results support an overall model of HIV ecology where poverty, income inequality and social inequality (in the form of institutionalized racism and anti-homosexual stigma) have over time developed into synergistic drivers of disease transmission in the U.S., inhibiting information-based prevention efforts. The relative weights of these distal factors vary over time and by HIV risk group. Our testable model may be more generally applicable within the U.S. and beyond.     

Preferential Marriage among the Rukuba of Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria

The overall system of Rukuba marriage is formally a straight exchange of women between the component units of two exogamous moieties, component units which in turn abduct each other's wives in secondary marriage. The youths and girls of each of these component units pair off in formalized premarital relationships until girls marry out in the other moiety. The exchange pattern between the moieties works in such a way that the eldest girl of a set of uterine sisters must marry her mother's last lover's son, and her junior sisters are preferentially married in their mother's natal component unit, thus introducing a delayed exchange between the component units of opposite moieties working concurrently with the straight exchange system between the moieties. This is made possible by the various combinations of primary and/or preferential marriage and subsequent secondary marriages. [Rukuba, moieties, Nigeria, preferential marriage]     

Is there a link between paternity concern and female genital cutting in West Africa?

Here we explore the relationship between female genital cutting (FGC), sexual behaviour, and marriage opportunities in five West African countries. Using large demographic datasets (n 72,438 women, 12,704 men, 10,695 couples) we explore key (but untested) assumptions of an evolutionary proposal that FGC persists because it provides evolutionary fitness benefits for men by reducing non-paternity rates. We identify and test three assumptions implicit in this proposal. We test whether cut women have reduced extra-pair sex before or within marriage; whether FGC is associated with a younger age at marriage as an indication of partner preference; and whether individual and group-level indicators of paternity concern are associated with a stronger preference for marriage to women with FGC.Our results show that FGC status does not affect the odds of women engaging in several indicators of premarital sex, however women with FGC have significantly lower odds of having more than one lifetime sexual partner. We also show that women with FGC get married at a younger age which supports the argument that FGC status influences women's marriage opportunities, even when it does not restrict sexual activity. Finally, we find that in population groups where reported sexual activity and perceived risk of women's extra-pair sex is high, men have higher odds of marrying a first wife with FGC. Together, these results indicate that paternity certainty may be one of several factors contributing to the persistence of FGC in this sample, and that group-level sexual norms are key to maintaining the practice of FGC through the marriage market.     

Fertility decline and the changing dynamics of wealth,status and inequality

In the course of demographic transitions (DTs), two large-scale trends become apparent: (i) the broadly positive association between wealth, status and fertility tends to reverse, and (ii) wealth inequalities increase and then temporarily decrease. We argue that these two broad patterns are linked, through a diversification of reproductive strategies that subsequently converge as populations consume more, become less self-sufficient and increasingly depend on education as a route to socio-economic status. We examine these links using data from 22 mid-transition communities in rural Poland. We identify changing relationships between fertility and multiple measures of wealth, status and inequality. Wealth and status generally have opposing effects on fertility, but these associations vary by community. Where farming remains a viable livelihood, reproductive strategies typical of both pre- and post-DT populations coexist. Fertility is lower and less variable in communities with lower wealth inequality, and macro-level patterns in inequality are generally reproduced at the community level. Our results provide a detailed insight into the changing dynamics of wealth, status and inequality that accompany DTs at the community level where peoples'' social and economic interactions typically take place. We find no evidence to suggest that women with the most educational capital gain wealth advantages from reducing fertility, nor that higher educational capital delays the onset of childbearing in this population. Rather, these patterns reflect changing reproductive preferences during a period of profound economic and social change, with implications for our understanding of reproductive and socio-economic inequalities in transitioning populations.     

Effects of natal male alliances on aggression and power dynamics in rhesus macaques

In the wild, male rhesus macaques disperse at sexual maturity. In captivity, however, males cannot disperse from their natal groups. Thus, the presence of natal males in captive rhesus social groups is unnatural and has the potential to negatively influence group dynamics and stability. A primary difference between natal males and non-natal (immigrant) males is that natal males have the opportunity to form long-term alliances with their maternal kin as well as nonkin. We investigated the factors associated with natal males' kin alliances and the impact of these alliances on measures of natal male behavior, group dynamics, and group stability. We found that natal males more frequently formed alliances with maternal kin when they were from high-ranking matrilines, had more siblings, and were younger. More frequent kin alliances were associated with more frequent use of intense aggression, higher individual rank, and higher degree of integration within the male displacement network. Thus, it seems that natal males use their alliances to be more active and influential in the social group, which may affect group stability. It appears that juvenile natal males from high-ranking matrilines, in particular, have the largest impact on group stability. Younger natal males from high-ranking matrilines formed alliances with kin more frequently and used intense aggression more frequently than older or lower ranking males. Furthermore, groups with a higher proportion of juvenile males from high-ranking matrilines also had higher rates of wounding. We suggest that the presence of natal males in rhesus groups may act in opposition to group stability.     

Height and reproductive success

In Western societies, height is positively correlated with reproductive success (RS) for men but negatively correlated with RS for women. These relationships have been attributed to sexual selection: women prefer tall men, and men prefer short women. It is this success in the marriage market which leads to higher RS for tall men and short women. We have already shown that the relationship between height and RS for women is quite different in a non-Western context. In a subsistence farming community in rural Gambia, height is positively correlated with reproductive success for women, largely owing to the higher survival of the children of tall women. Here, the relationship between height and reproductive success is analyzed for men in the same community. For these Gambian men, there is no significant relationship between height and the number of children they produce, although tall men do contract more marriages than shorter men. We conclude that environmental context needs to be taken into account when analyzing human reproductive behavior.     

HIV/AIDS in rural India: context and health care needs

Primary research on HIV/AIDS in India has predominantly focused on known risk groups such as sex workers, STI clinic attendees and long-distance truck drivers, and has largely been undertaken in urban areas. There is evidence of HIV spreading to rural areas but very little is known about the context of the infection or about issues relating to health and social impact on people living with HIV/AIDS. In-depth interviews with nineteen men and women infected with HIV who live in rural areas were used to collect experiences of testing and treatment, the social impacts of living with HIV and differential impacts on women and men. Eight focus group discussions with groups drawn from the general population in the four villages were used to provide an analysis of community level views about HIV/AIDS. While men reported contracting HIV from sex workers in the cities, women considered their husbands to be the source of their infection. Correct knowledge about HIV transmission co-existed with misconceptions. Men and women tested for HIV reported inadequate counselling and sought treatment from traditional healers as well as professionals. Owing to the general pattern of husbands being the first to contract HIV women faced a substantial burden, with few resources remaining for their own or their children's care after meeting the needs of sick husbands. Stigma and social isolation following widowhood were common, with an enforced return to the natal home. Implications for potential educational and service interventions are discussed within the context of gender and social relations.     

Poverty or income inequality as predictor of mortality: longitudinal cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of inequality in income between communities independent of household income on individual all cause mortality in the United States. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study. SUBJECTS: A nationally representative sample of 14,407 people aged 25-74 years in the United States from the first national health and nutrition examination survey. SETTING: Subjects were followed from initial interview in 1971-5 until 1987. Complete follow up information was available for 92.2% of the sample. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Relation between both household income and income inequality in community of residence and individual all cause mortality at follow up was examined with Cox proportional hazards survival analysis. RESULTS: Community income inequality showed a significant association with subsequent community mortality, and with individual mortality after adjustment for age, sex, and mean income in the community of residence. After adjustment for individual household income, however, the association with mortality was lost. CONCLUSIONS: In this nationally representative American sample, family income, but not community income inequality, independently predicts mortality. Previously reported ecological associations between income inequality and mortality may reflect confounding between individual family income and mortality.     

Heritability of short-scale natal dispersal in a large-scale foraging bird, the wandering albatross

Natal dispersal is a key life history trait for the evolution and adaptation of wild populations. Although its evolution has repeatedly been related to the social and environmental context faced by individuals, parent-offspring regressions have also highlighted a possible heritable component. In this study, we explore heritability of natal dispersal, at the scale of the sub-Antarctic Possession Island, for a large-scale foraging seabird, the Wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, exploiting a pedigree spanning over four decades and a maximum of four generations. The comparison of three different methods shows that heritability on the liability scale can vary drastically depending on the type of model (heritability from 6% to 86%), with a notable underestimation by restricted maximum likelihood animal models (6%) compared to Bayesian animal models (36%). In all cases, however, our results point to significant additive genetic variance in the individual propensity to disperse, after controlling for substantial effects of sex and natal colony. These results reveal promising evolutionary potential for short-scale natal dispersal, which could play a critical role for the long-term persistence of this species on the long run.     

Promoting Healthy Behaviors among Egyptian Mothers: A Quasi-Experimental Study of a Health Communication Package Delivered by Community Organizations

Decisions made at the household level, for example, to seek antenatal care or breastfeed, can have a direct impact on the health of mothers and newborns. The SMART Community-based Initiatives program in Egypt worked with community development associations to encourage better household decision-making by training community health workers to disseminate information and encourage healthy practices during home visits, group sessions, and community activities with pregnant women, mothers of young children, and their families. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the program, with household surveys conducted before and after the intervention in intervention and comparison areas. Survey questions asked about women’s knowledge and behaviors related to maternal and newborn care and child nutrition and, at the endline, exposure to SMART activities. Exposure to program activities was high in intervention areas of Upper Egypt: 91% of respondents reported receiving home visits and 84% attended group sessions. In Lower Egypt, these figures were 58% and 48%, respectively. Knowledge of danger signs related to pregnancy, delivery, and newborn illness increased significantly more in intervention than comparison areas in both regions (with one exception in Lower Egypt), after controlling for child’s age and woman’s education; this pattern also occurred for two of five behaviors (antenatal care visits and consumption of iron-folate tablets). Findings suggest that there may have been a significant dose-response relationship between exposure to SMART activities and certain knowledge and behavioral indicators, especially in Upper Egypt. The findings demonstrate the ability of civil society organizations with minimal health programming experience to increase knowledge and promote healthy behaviors among pregnant women and new mothers. The SMART approach offers a promising strategy to fill gaps in health education and counseling and strengthen community support for behavior change.     

Premarital childbearing in northwest Kenya: challenging the concept of illegitimacy

A number of African countries, including Kenya, have experienced a marked rise in births among unmarried women. In Western countries, reproduction outside of marriage is assumed to be illegitimate and a social problem. One hypothesis used to explain the increasing incidence of premarital fertility in Africa is a breakdown of traditional social controls by the extended family over the sexual behavior of adolescents. A competing hypothesis suggests that unmarried women use sexual relations to achieve goals such as marriage. Among Turkana pastoralists of northwest Kenya, we find a pattern of premarital birth that fits either hypothesis only loosely. Premarital fertility among the Turkana is both widespread and culturally acceptable, with over 30 per cent of women having at least one child prior to marriage. Although women with premarital births initiate childbearing on average one year earlier than women with only marital births, women's marital status does not influence the length of the interval between first and second births. Marriage among the Turkana is not a social trigger for the onset and continuation of reproduction or a means to legitimate reproduction. Marital status of the parents simply determines the custody of a child. In a premarital birth, the father pays a set fee to the mother's family, and the custody of the child remains permanently with the mother's family. If the parents later marry, the father must purchase custody of the child by another fee at that time. Since the Turkana have experienced few effects of modernization, the existence of such a practice suggests that cultural factors must be taken into account before assessing premarital fertility in Africa as a social problem.     

Maternal bodies, breast-feeding, and consumer desire in urban China

Urban Chinese women in the 1990s formulated their infant-feeding decisions in the context of a society undergoing radical transformation as the nation moved from a centrally planned socialist economy to a global, market-oriented one. Narratives of new mothers in Beijing in the 1990s provide insights into the multiple forces that shaped their infant-feeding practices. These personal histories also illustrate the limitations of multilateral breast-feeding programs that emphasize breast-feeding as a natural interaction between mother and infant. The cases I present here demonstrate instead that the material, bodily manifestations of breast-feeding require nursing mothers to continually renegotiate relations with husbands, coworkers, and family. Chinese women's accounts also add insight to theoretical deliberations on gender and the body, for they demonstrate that cultural expectations and the demands of the lactating body must be considered to understand fully the process of women's decisions in a social and not strictly reproductive context. On a larger scale, the data also illustrate how global intervention, in the form of the WHO-UNICEF-sponsored Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, promotes breast-feeding as a woman's primary duty at the same time that market forces counter this message as women redefine their individual expectations and social relationships.