Publication

2002-07-01 - University Of Chicago Press

Language

English

Word Count

104,000 words, Guess

Page Count

416 pages

Physical Format

Paperback

Identifiers

  • Internet Archivecontingentlivesf00bled
  • ISBN-100226058522
  • ISBN-139780226058528
  • LibraryThing2735500
  • Goodreads768984
and 2 more
  • Better World Books9780226058528
  • Open LibraryOL9775118M

Classifications

  • LCCHQ766.5.G25B54 2002

Description

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 ageing and the ability to reproduce with the passage of time, the other a Gambian model that views ageing as contingent on the cumulative physical, social, and spiritual hardships of personal history, especially obstetric trauma.

First Sentence

Kaddy Seesay, a thirty-year-old remarried divorcee, happened to fall into a sample of women interviewed every month for fifteen months, during a 1992-95 research project on contraception and birth intervals in rural Gambia.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • Contingent Lives: Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa (Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture Series)PaperbackUniversity Of Chicago Press2002-07-01

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