Fertility and the Male Life-Cycle in the Era of Fertility Decline, by Bledsoe, Lerner and Guyer
Published by Oxford University Press in 2000. 376 pages. Hardback with Dust Jacket. (WSOU2)
Traditionally, women have been the sole focus of fertility studies. Ranging broadly over ethnographies, national surveys, and historical texts, this volume breaks imaginative new ground in grappling with the immense variation in male reproduction across the world. The book challenges the idea that there is an inevitable link between fewer children and quality of life, and that women should be the sole focus of any study of fertility and reproduction in society.
Instead, the book argues that in an era of unprecedented fertility decline, there is an increasing concern about the lessening worldwide role that men play in the upbringing of children. The immense worldwide variation in the timing and sequence of a mans life-course events, the rise and fall in personal fortunes, and the weight of societys hierachies all combine to affect the number of children a man fathers, when he fathers them, the number of partners he fathers them with, and the kind of support and recognition he bestows upon them.
The book is a fascinating and key text in the sociology and politics of Reproduction, and in the study of Anthropology.
Condition is excellent. The dust jacket has one or two very minor scuffs but is clean and crisp, the spine is intact, and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound
| Condition | New |