Add free shipping to your order with these great books
Contingent Lives : Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa - Caroline H. Bledsoe

Contingent Lives

Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa

By: Caroline H. Bledsoe

Hardcover | 1 July 2002 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover


$335.25

or 4 interest-free payments of $83.81 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

Most women in the West use contraceptives in order to avoid having children. But in rural Gambia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, many women use contraceptives for the opposite reason--to have as many children as possible.
Using ethnographic and demographic data from a three-year study in rural Gambia, "Contingent Lives" explains this seemingly counterintuitive fact by juxtaposing two very different understandings of the life course: one is a linear, Western model that equates aging and the ability to reproduce with the passage of time, the other a Gambian model that views aging as contingent on the cumulative physical, social, and spiritual hardships of personal history, especially obstetric trauma. Viewing each of these two models from the perspective of the other, Caroline Bledsoe produces fresh understandings of the classical anthropological subjects of reproduction, time, and aging as culturally shaped within women's conjugal lives. Her insights will be welcomed by scholars of anthropology and demography as well as by those working in public health, development studies, gerontology, and the history of medicine.
Industry Reviews
"Making brilliant use of the puzzle of women in The Gambia using modern contraception as a means to increase their fertility, Bledsoe shows - in a way no one previously has done so well - just why anthropological insights are needed in demographic research. Contingent Lives offers a rich contribution both to social theory and to social methodology." - David Kertzer, Brown University

More in Mathematics

Calculus, Metric Edition : 9th edition - James Michael Stewart

RRP $174.95

$141.75

19%
OFF
How to Win At Chess : The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond - Levy Rozman
Basic Technical Mathematics with Calculus, SI Version : 11th edition - Allyn J. Washington
The Selfish Gene : 40th Anniversary Edition - Richard Dawkins

RRP $30.95

$25.75

17%
OFF
Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music : Workbook : 2nd Edition - Robert Gauldin
Antifragile : Things That Gain from Disorder - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF
Nelson WAmaths Mathematics Applications : 11th Edition - Amanda Pettitt
Nelson WAmaths Mathematics Methods : 11th Edition - Judith Cumpsty
Linear Algebra : A Problem-Centered Approach - Robert Freud

RRP $229.00

$206.25

10%
OFF
Fuzzy Methods for Assessment and Decision Making - Michael Gr. Voskoglou

RRP $264.95

$234.95

11%
OFF