3 Population studies and human behaviour

Ms. Sangeeta Dey and Prof. A.K. Kapoor

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Anthropology and population studies

3. Human behaviour towards population studies or demography

4. Fecundity, fertility and natality

5. Factors determining fertility and human behaviour

5.1. Age of entry into sexual unions

5.2. Permanent Celibacy

5.3. Amount of reproductive period spent after or between unions

5.4. Voluntary Abstinence

5.5. Involuntary Abstinence

5.6. Frequency of intercourse

5.7. Fecundity as affected by involuntary causes

5.8. Use or non-use of contraception

5.9. Fecundity as affected by voluntary causes

5.10. Fetal mortality from involuntary causes

5.11. Fetal mortality from voluntary causes

6. Factors associated with long term decline in fertility in developed countries

6.1. Motivational factors

6.2. Economic and social factors

7. Differential fertility

7.1. Ecological factors

7.2. Socio-economic factors

8. Mortality

9. Infant mortality

9.1. Endogenous factors

9.2. Exogenous factors

10. Reasons for high mortality in the past

10.1. Famines and Food shortages

10.2. Epidemics

10.3. Recurrent wars

10.4. Poor sanitary conditions Summary

Learning Objectives:

To describe populations studies and human behaviour
To understand the variables that change population structure
To describe factors that are associated with long term decline of fertility
To know about mortality and infant mortality
To understand impact of high mortality and the associated reasons
To understand the importance of socio economic factors in fertility

1. Introduction

Demography is the study of human populations, their growth and decline due to changing patterns of migration, fertility and mortality and characteristics such as the sex-ratio, dependency ratio and age structure. The subject is also known by the name demography. The subject is sometimes divided for further elucidation into ‘formal demography’ meaning the formal statistical analysis of population parameters and dynamics and ‘population studies’ meaning the wider investigation of the causes and consequences of population structures and change. It is in the latter area that is population studies that many demographers have interests which overlap with those of sociologists and anthropologists and in their investigations demographic analysis forms an important component in the description and understanding of the human societies.

The methodology of population studies consists of analysis of databases of official statistics from births, deaths and marriage registration, and from population censuses. They seek ultimately to produce population projections that is forecasts not only of the size of the population over coming decades, but also its changing age-structure, which can be important for social policy.

2. Anthropology and Population studies

The parameters of population study are a part of individual’s whole socio-psychological behaviour, which has a decisive effect on the possibility of some demographic event. The socio-economic system of the society guides demographic behaviour and by employing concepts of demography, socio-economic conditions can be clearly understood.

The relation between the two sciences – anthropology and demography becomes clearer when one realizes that a majority of problems connected with population are classified as social problems. Values are fundamental to any society and functioning of any culture. Hence, demography cannot afford to ignore the study of social values which provide the context in which every human population grows and thrive to survive. This demands a holistic approach especially drawing from the principles, concepts and methodology of anthropology. Even the success and failure of family planning programs are determined by socio-cultural consciousness of people. This reveals the inseparable relationship between anthropology and demography and prevents any underestimation of their functional interdependence.

3. Human behaviour towards population studies or demography

Under the domain of population studies, there is a field of study concerned with the analysis of how social and cultural factors are related to population characteristics. Its major focus is the impact of social and cultural factors on demographic features of society such as patterns of marriage and child bearing, the age-structure of the population, life expectancy and so forth. It also encompasses examination of the social consequences of demographic change. Since the demographic characteristics of a society or social group are themselves social phenomena and the immediate product of the social events of birth and death is the changes in the variables of population structure.

There are three main variables underlying population change are fertility, mortality and migration, variables themselves associated with factors such as age at marriage, the proportions marrying, contraceptive use, levels and types of morbidity, rural-urban migration, and so forth. All receive attention from social demographers, who seek to understand these processes in terms of a range of standard social factors such as the levels and distribution of income, levels of education, the position of women, religion and economic development.

4. Fecundity, Fertility and Natality

Fecundity is the capacity to conceive or bear children. It is defined as a “biological potential or the physiological capacity to participate in reproduction.” The absence of fecundity is called sterility or infecundity. It is the potential level of performance or the physical capacity for bearing children of the population.

Fertility on the other hand refers to the actual reproductive performance of individual or group. It follows that fertility of an individual will be limited by the physiological capacity to reproduce i.e., fecundity.

Natality is the birthrate, which is the ratio of total live births to total population in a particular area over a specified period of time; expressed as childbirths per thousand population per year.

5. Factors determining fertility and human behaviour

A causal analysis of fertility may involve a great number of factors and complicated chain reactions. Lists of eleven variables which directly affect fertility are indicated which are as follows:

5.1. Age of entry into sexual unions: In the European nation’s culture, a couple is not supposed to marry until the husband is able to support a wife and family. In pre-industrial Europe, the age at marriage was relatively low but began to rise gradually. In Asian nations, on the other hand, the age at first marriage has always been very early, since marriages are arranged and the husband is not expected to support his family entirely by his own efforts.

5.2. Permanent Celibacy: A rather high proportion of permanent celibates are frequent in the nations which have a late average age at marriage.

5.3. Amount of reproductive period spent after or between unions: In all societies actual fertility is reduced below the biologically maximum level because part of the part of the reproductive spent after or between sexual unions. Where monogamy is institutionalized it is almost inevitable that a certain proportion of widows never remarry, since there are almost always more widows than widowers, and many widowers prefer to marry never-married women. Period of separation between marital unions are also important in some societies in reducing fertility.

5.4. Voluntary Abstinence: Almost all societies enjoy period of ansiste3nce during late pregnancy and also during postpartum period. The former has no detrimental effect on fertility and the latter has little since almost all women have very low biological fecundity during this time.

5.5. Involuntary Abstinence: In a few societies a large proportion of men must absent themselves from their wives periodically to obtain gainful labor.

5.6. Frequency of intercourse: Evidence suggests that this variable may be rather important in determining differences in fertility between individuals of different nations. It is possible, however, that factors such as diet, temperature, humidity and the prevalence of certain enervating diseases may have effects on the average frequency of intercourse in different populations.

5.7. Fecundity as affected by involuntary causes: Several factors may affect the probability of conception, given the fact that intercourse occurs at a specified frequency. On a worldwide basis perhaps the chief of these is the incidence of venereal diseases. Extreme hunger has also been found to cause amenorrhea in women and a reduced sperm count in men.

5.8. Use or non-use of contraception: Contraception is the most important of all the variables effecting fertility. Actually. Although there is no doubt that contraception is very influential in reducing levels of fertility, it is definitely not so overwhelming a contribution that the other variables can be ignored.

5.9. Fecundity as affected by voluntary causes: The surgical operation of tubectomy in females and vasectomy in males provide an individual permanent freedom from further parenthood. On a worldwide basis, prolonged breast feeding is one of the most important means by which women may temporarily reduce her fecundity. Women are sterile during their period of postpartum amenorrhea and a short period of an ovulatory cycle following their resumption of their menses. Prolonged lactation has a pronounced effect on the length of the period of post partum sterility around 13 months and only four months in a population with no lactation.

5.10. Fetal mortality from involuntary causes: On average, about 20% of all known pregnancies are spontaneously aborted. There is much individual variation in the proportion of pregnancies which miscarry, but little is known how populations may vary in this respect.

5.11. Fetal mortality from voluntary causes: Induced abortion is one of the most important means of birth control. Primitive methods of abortions have been practised throughout human history.

6. Factors associated with long term decline in fertility in developed countries 6.1. Motivational factors

Motivational factors have played an important role in bringing about a change from high fertility to low fertility. Demographers are of the opinion that over the years tremendous changes have occurred in the attitudes of couples towards reproduction. It appears that they have moved away from a strong positive desire to have several children to a strong motivation for a limited family. These forces operated at the individual couples who translated into action the desire for a small family.

6.2. Economic and social factors

The phenomenon of fertility decline in the now developed countries is very complex. Several interacting and overlapping economic and social factors were responsible for the transition from high to low fertility. These are:

– Industrialization

– Urbanization

– Rising levels of living and increased cost of bringing up children

– Family functions and structures

– Relationship between mortality and fertility

– Social mobility

7. Differential fertility

It has been observed that the levels and patterns of fertility vary considerably in various sub-groups of the same population. These subgroups may be based on residence, whether urban or rural, social and economic status in terms of educational attainment, occupations, income, size of land holding, religion, caste and race etc. A study of differential fertility is useful in identifying the factors which determine fertility levels among various sub-groups. Differential fertility can be understood as a result of following factors.

7.1. Ecological factors

Regional differences in fertility: The fertility rates of various regions of states or provinces within the one country may differ widely.
Rural-Urban residence and fertility: Towards the end of the last century, in the low fertility areas of the world, it was found that the fertility of those residing in cities was lower than that of rural residents and these differentials were more or less stable.

7.2. Socio-economic factors

Educational Attainment and fertility: The educational attainment of couples has a very strong bearing on the number of children born. Educational attainment especially of women is one of the indicators of modernization and the status of women in society and higher the educational level, the lower was the family size.
Economic status and fertility: general studies in the past have highlighted the inverse relationship between the economic status of the family and fertility.
Occupational of husband and fertility: In developed countries, occupation especially that of the husband is used as an indicator of social economic status and differential fertility is studies according to the occupation of the husband. It is indicated that the wives of farmers and farm workers recorded a higher fertility than the wives of men engaged in non agricultural occupations. These differences were more pronounced in France and the United states than in the other countries.
Employment of wife and fertility: It has been found in several studies that the gainfully employed women have a smaller number of children than those who are not employed.
Religion, caste, race and fertility: Religion is considered to be an important factor affecting fertility. The study of differential fertility of various religions as well as ethnic groups has important social and political implications. At one time, all the religions of the world, except Buddhism, were pro-natalist or “populationist”. The injunctions laid down in various religions indicate the importance of high fertility.

Some illustrations are: “be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth” – Judaism and Christanity; “Marry a women who holds her husband extremely dear and who is richly fruitful” – Islam; “Make the bride the mother of good and fortunate children, bless her to get ten children and make the husband eleventh one” – Hinduism. It may however be pointed out that all these religions have their roots in the distant past, which was a period of high mortality. As such, the emphasis on prolific fertility was a functional adjustment to high mortality in order to ensure the continuation of the group.

8. Mortality

The study of mortality deals with the effects of death on population. The United Nations and the world health Organization have defined death as follows: “Death is the permanent disappearance of all evidence of life at any time after birth has taken place or the post natal cessation of vital functions without capacity of resuscitation.” A death can thus occur only after a live birth and the span between birth and death is life.

Any death prior to a live birth which has been defined by the United Nations as follows: “Live birth is the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which, after such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles, each product of such a birth is considered live-born.” It is therefore evident that any death prior to a live birth is not considered as a death. Thus, abortions and still births are referred to not as deaths but as fetal deaths. Any expulsion of the fetus, either spontaneous or induced, which occurs before the fetus becomes viable, that is, capable of independent existence outside its mother, is known as an abortion. When a birth does not have any of the characteristics included in either of these two definitions of live birth or abortion, it is known as still birth.

9. Infant mortality

The study of infant mortality gains importance especially because mortality during the first year of life is invariably high for all countries irrespective of whether the overall levels of mortality are high or low. The level of mortality is very high in the first few hours, days and weeks of life. The reasons for infant death at the earlier and later stages of infancy differ to a certain extent.

Infant mortality or infant deaths are carefully grouped into two categories according to the age at death. The first category consists of those infants who die before they complete four weeks of life. The other category consists of those infants who die between 28 days and 365 days of their life. The rate based on the first period is known as the neo-natal mortality rate. Factors which affect neo-natal mortality deaths are primarily endogenous, while those which affect post-neo-natal deaths are primarily exogenous.

9.1. Endogenous factors

The endogenous factors are related to the formation of the fetus in the womb and are therefore biological in nature. Among the biological factors affecting fetal and neo-natal infant mortality rates, the important ones are the age of the mother, the birth order and the period of spacing between births, prematurity, weight at irth and the fact of multiple births.

9.2. Exogenous factors

Social, cultural, economic and environmental factors are also found to affect infant mortality especially during the post-neo-natal period. Post-neo-natal deaths are therefore mainly due to various epidemics caused by communicable diseases both of the digestive system such as diarrhoea and enteritis, and of the respiratory system, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, as well as by faulty feeding patterns and poor hygiene. The underlying environmental factors include crowding and congestion, unsanitary surroundings, lack of proper sunshine and fresh air etc. Illegitimacy is also an important factor contributing to a high infant mortality rate.

10. Reasons for high mortality in the past

Death rates all over the world were very high and fluctuating till the 19th century. The main reasons for such high mortality rates were:

Acute and chronic food shortages causing famines and conditions of malnutrition
Epidemics
Recurrent wars
Poor sanitary conditions

10.1. Famines and Food Shortages

In the pre-industrial phase, man had limited control over his environment and his food supply was profoundly affected by changes in weather conditions, such as droughts, floods, severe winters and scorching summers. Agricultural production was also limited by other conditions such as inefficiency of labour, pests and by plant diseases. Even when the harvest was good, food could not be stored for the future because of inefficient methods of storage nor it could be transported, to scarcity areas since easy and cheap means of transportation was not available. Besides acute famines, conditions of severe malnutrition resulting from continuous insufficient food supply prevailed in all countries, the state of malnutrition weakening million of people to such an extent that they fell an easy prey to infection. Men’s suffering from food shortages, both in terms of quality and quantity, were unable to work efficiently. They thus lowered their own as well as their community’s income.

10.2. Epidemics

Since the beginning, mankind has suffered from communicable diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, small pox, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia plague etc. as well as from childhood communicable diseases such as measles, whooping, cough, scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc. All these diseases were quite common until recent times and took a heavy toll of life. These diseases tended to spread rapidly in densely situated areas through personal contacts, community use of contaminated water and food supply and as a result of migration of people and the movement of diseases carrying flies from place to place.

10.3. Recurrent wars

Throughout the mankind’s history, war has been an important factor affecting the population size. The effect of war on human population is two-fold. First, death came to military personnel in the battlefield. Soldiers also died of wounds received in battle. Deaths among military personnel were also caused by deprivation and diseases associated with wars. Some wars indirectly caused heavy civilian causalities through the spread of diseases carried by armies through plunders and various other forms of social and economic disorganizations. Napoleon was utterly helpless in his fight against typhus, pneumonia, dysentery and scurvy.

10.4. Poor sanitary Conditions

Throughout most of the mankind’s history, sanitary conditions have been extremely poor. There was very little knowledge of the medical value of cleanliness. In pre-industrial times, the standard of living was low; the personal hygiene of the people was inadequate and communal sanitary facilities were absent. All these factors contributed to extremely filthy environments, leading to epidemics and all kinds of diseases. The use of soap was almost unknown in the thirteenth century.

It may thus be concluded that food shortages, various types of death dealing epidemics and unsanitary hygienic conditions resulted in high levels of mortality from the beginning of the history of mankind or the human ancestral forms.

Summary

The parameters of population study are a part of individual’s whole socio-psychological behaviour, which has a decisive effect on the possibility of some demographic event. Under the domain of population studies, there is a field of study concerned with the analysis of how social and cultural factors are related to population characteristics. Its major focus is the impact of social and cultural factors on demographic features of society such as patterns of marriage and child bearing, the age-structure of the population, life expectancy and so forth. It may thus be concluded that food shortages, various types of death dealing epidemics and unsanitary hygienic conditions resulted in high levels of mortality from the beginning of the history of mankind or the human ancestral forms.

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