Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T13:49:24.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mambila Demography from Archival Sources1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

David Zeitlyn  and
Janet Bagg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper provides a first report of a study of the population of Somié, a Mambila village in Cameroun, which seeks to explore ways of linking microdemographic analysis and the results of anthropological research. We have sought ways in which we can analyze in a common frame genealogical data, residence patterns, and other data from anthropological fieldwork, together with census returns and archival materials.

By combining the details of kinship and residence (gathered during anthropological fieldwork over a period of ten years) with the statistics of births and deaths from census results and archival materials from 1950 onwards, we can begin to assess the effects of genealogical and residence factors on fertility and mortality. Conversely, it becomes possible to examine the effects of demographic factors on the genealogical basis of village life.

In an area where sister exchange marriage was practiced, repeated marriages give rise to complex genealogies whose connection to demographic factors has not been analyzed. Demographic changes influence the numbers of kin available for marriage, and the relationships between fertility, fecundity, mortality, morbidity, rates of sister exchange, and numbers of kin (in different categories) are significant and their change over time is hard to investigate without this type of research. In addition it provides ways in which demographic changes can be analyzed, and points to ways of assessing the impact of the introduction of health care provision and primary education on both demographic indicators and on beliefs and attitudes to health and fertility. Such research has clear relevance for policy-makers.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 27 , January 2000 , pp. 423 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

We would like to thank the Wellcome Foundation (Grant no. 051191/Z/97/Z/IGS/MS/CG) for supporting this research. Other support has come from CSAC and other staff at UKC. Particular thanks must go to Mike Fisher and Nick Ryan. An earlier version of this paper was given at the African Studies Assocition, Chicago 1998.

References

Brass, W., ed. 1968. The Demography of Tropical Africa Princeton.Google Scholar
Bagg, J. and Ryan, N. 1991 Interacting with Diagrams: Using a Graph Browser with a Research Database. In Best, H., Mochman, E., and Thaller, M., eds. Computers in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Achievements of the 1980s, Prospects for the 1990s. Munich.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. 1977. Major Questions in African Demographic History. In African Historical Demography, ed. Fyfe, C., and McMaster, D.Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. 1988. Micro-Approaches: Similarities and Differences, Strengths and Weaknesses. In Micro-Approaches to Demographic Research, eds. Caldwell, J. C., Hill, A. G., and Hull, V. J.London.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. 1994. Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa: Status and Prospects. Population And Development Review 20: 79–87.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C., Caldwell, P., and Quiggin, P. 1989. The social-context of AIDS in sub-saharan Africa. Population And Development Review 15:185–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casley, D. J. and Lury, D. A. 1987. Data Collection in Developing Countries. 2d. ed. Oxford.Google Scholar
Clairin, R. and Condé, J. 1986. Handbook for Estimating Demographic Statistics from Incomplete Data in Developing Countries Paris.Google Scholar
Das Gupta, M. 1988. The Use of Genealogies for Reconstructing Social History and Analysing Fertility Behaviour in a North Indian Village. In Micro-Approaches to Demographic Research, ed. Caldwell, J. C., Hill, A. G., and Hull, V. J.London.Google Scholar
Dyke, B. and Morrill, W.T. eds. 1980. Genealogical Demography. London.Google Scholar
Fardon, R. O. 1984/1985. Sisters, Wives, Wards, and Daughters: a Transformational Analysis of the Political Organisation of the Tiv and their Neighbours. Africa 54:2–21; 55: 77-91.Google Scholar
Fetter, B. ed. 1990. Demography from Scanty Evidence: Central Africa in the Colonial Era. Boulder.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, M. D. 1994. Applications in Computing for Social Anthropologists London.Google Scholar
Greenhalgh, S. ed. 1995. Situating Fertility: Anthropology and Demographic Inquiry. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hammel, E. A. and Mason, C. 1993. My Brother's Keeper: Modelling Kinship Links in Early Urbanization. In Old and New Methods in Historical demography, ed. Reher, D. S. and Schofield, R. S.Oxford.Google Scholar
Heald, S. 1995. The Power of Sex: Some Reflections on the Caldwells' ‘African Sexuality’ Thesis. Africa 65:489–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, L. and Fleury, M. 1956. Des registres paroissiaux à l'histoire de la population: manuel de dépouillement de l'état civil ancien Paris.Google Scholar
Hurault, J. M. 1969/1970. Eleveurs et Cultivateurs des Hauts Plateaux du Cameroun: la Population du Lamidat de Banyo. Population 24: 963-94; 25:1039–84.Google Scholar
Klaff, V. Z. 1992. DEM-LAB: Teaching Demography Through Computers Englewood Cliffs, N.J.Google Scholar
Pison, G., and Langarey, A. 1988. Age Patterns of Mortality in Eastern Senegal: a Comparison of Micro and Survey Approaches. In Micro-Approaches to Demographic Research, eds. Caldwell, J. C., Hill, A.G., and Hull, V.J.London.Google Scholar
Reher, D. S. and Schofield, R.S. eds. 1993. Old and New Methods in Historical demography. Oxford.Google Scholar
Riley, J. C. 1993. Excess Mortality in Youth. In Old and New Methods in Historical Demography.Google Scholar
Smith, J. E. and Oeppen, J. 1993. Estimating Numbers of Kin in Historical England Using Demographic Microsimulation. In Old and New Methods in Historical Demography.Google Scholar
Thomas, A. 1988. Drawing Pedigrees. IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medicine and Biology 5:201–13.Google Scholar
van de Walle, E., Pison, G., and Sala-Diakanda, M. eds. 1992. Mortality and Society in Sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford.Google Scholar
Willigan, J. D. and Lynch, K.A. 1982. Sources and Methods of Historical Demography. London.Google Scholar
Wrigley, E. A. and Schofield, R.S. 1973. Nominal Record Linkage by Computer and the Logic of Family Reconstiution. In Identifying People in the Past. ed., Wrigley, E. A.London.Google Scholar
Zeitlyn, D. 1994. Sua in Somié. Sankt Augustin.Google Scholar