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The ecology of birth seasonality among agriculturalists in central Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Robert C. Bailey ,
Mark R. Jenike ,
Peter T. Ellison ,
Gillian R. Bentley ,
Alisa M. Harrigan  and
Nadine R. Peacock
Robert C. Bailey
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Mark R. Jenike
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Peter T. Ellison
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Gillian R. Bentley
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Alisa M. Harrigan
Affiliation:
Harvard University University of Michigan, USA
Nadine R. Peacock
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

The Lese are subsistence farmers living in the Ituri Forest of north-east Zaïre. They exhibit significant birth seasonality, with lowest frequencies of conception when food production is least, nutritional status is low and ovarian function, as measured by salivary steroid hormone levels, is reduced. Efe pygmy foragers, who live in the same geographical area but are less dependent on cultivated foods and have a more flexible life style, do not exhibit frequent fluctuations in nutritional status nor significant birth seasonality. These findings support a model of birth seasonality relating climatic variables to variation in fertility through a causal chain linking rainfall to food production to energy balance to ovarian function to fertility. The model, which emphasises an ecological approach to the study of human reproduction, should have broad applicability since seasonality of food production and energy balance is widespread geographically and across a wide variety of economies and cultures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 24 , Special Issue 3: Workshop on Methodology and Protocol of Human Fertility Studies under Field Conditions , July 1992 , pp. 393 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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