This study explores the relationship between poverty and vulnerability to HIV infection in Ethiopia using primary (quantitative and qualitative) and secondary data from two sub-cities of Addis Ababa. The data show that sexual experience is influenced by diverse factors such as age, gender, economic status and education level. Household economic status and migration explain the nature of sexual experience and level of vulnerability to HIV infection. Poor uneducated women in poor neighbourhoods are more likely to engage in risky sexual encounters despite awareness about the risk of HIV infection as they operate in an environment that provides the ‘path of least resistance’ (Lindegger & Wood, 1995, p. 7). This article argues that poverty provides a situation where early sexual initiation, ‘transactional sex’ and an inability to negotiate for safer sex are associated with low income, lack of education and increased vulnerability to HIV infection. This vulnerability is simultaneously contested and accepted as a commitment to even sacrifice one's life for the sake of one's loved ones. As a modest contribution to the ‘structural violence’ approach, which emphasizes social inequalities based on gender, class, ethnicity and race and inequalities in terms of exposure to risk and access to health care (Massé, 2007), this article challenges the ‘African promiscuity’ discourse, which ‘does not permit policymakers to think beyond sex’ (Stillwaggon, 2006, p. 156), and encourages researchers and policymakers to ask the right questions to understand the complexity of HIV/AIDS and seek solutions to the pandemic.

Reproductive strategies are related to ecological constraints. This paper examines data on early birth spacing in a scheduled caste, Bengali-speaking, non-contracepting population of the Karimganj district of southern Assam, India, taking an evolutionary ecological perspective. It is found that on average birth intervals closed by boy–boy are longer than those closed by girl–girl. Birth spacing tends to be longer among upper-income and Craftsman sub-caste mothers. The presence of a ‘grandmother’ in the household shortens spacing. These findings are compatible with an evolutionary-based reproductive decision-making process.

This Study, the first of a series on consanguinity in the Archbishopric of Toledo from 1900 to 1979, analyses in detail the types of consanguineous mating in a population of considerable size, some 650,000 persons, in central spain. during the period covered, very important transformations occurred in Spanish society. The data relate to 21,464 consanguineous marriages. They were divided into two groups, according to the premarital migration of the couple. Significant differences in the frequencies of the types of consanguineous matings, and their secular evolution, are found for the two groups. The expected trend in inbreeding in the total area shows two different tendencies: constancy till the end of the 1950s, followed by a fast decline during the last two decades.

This article, based on retrospective survey data, examines the fertility performance of third-order parity women in Korea, following births of specified sexes of children already born. Although the study indicates that additional births and spacing of children after the third birth are strongly influenced by the sex composition of the first three children, this influence becomes apparent only after the introduction of a vigorous national family planning programme. It seems that both the number of sons and the sequence of sons and daughters play an important role in determining subsequent fertility. More than twice as great a proportion of third-parity women proceeded to the fourth parity if the women had three daughters rather than three sons.

313 pairs of brothers and 296 pairs of sisters were compared by one or both parents in a postal questionnaire. For 495 pairs independent questionnaires were completed by father and mother, and agreement between parents was good.

There was a marked tendency for the first-born child to be rated as less fond of cuddling; he was also easier to train, worked harder at school, set himself higher standards, and was more serious, methodical, law-abiding, tidy and less impulsive; he learned to talk and read at a younger age and was rated as having more natural ability at schoolwork. These three groups of first-born attributes were relatively independent; for instance, even the first-born with less ability at schoolwork were given more responsibility at school. In the 152 pairs which did not contain a first-born, little birth order effect could be found, whether or not the elder was the eldest of his or her sex.

There was a slight tendency for the broader, fatter and more muscular child to be less nervous and highly strung, but otherwise differences in physique were not related to differences in behaviour. Abilities at schoolwork, games, music and painting were not related. Tendency to anxiety and depression was related to lack of sociability; to stubbornness and lack of practicality; to angryness but not the bottling up of anger; to level of aspiration but not the possession of abilities or good looks. These relations of anxiety and depression in a normal sample closely parallel the items which distinguish psychiatric patients from their healthy siblings.

Data from interviews with 131 women who had a live birth and 109 who had a stillbirth about their experience of childbearing have been compared with information obtained from doctors.

For the live births medical information was more often obtained for those in teaching than in non-teaching hospitals. It is estimated that 84% of miscarriages, abortions and stillbirths were reported by women whereas 62% were recorded accessibly in the notes. Nerves and depression during pregnancy were reported much more frequently by the women than by the doctors.

Correlations over gestation were around 0·8. Concordance was greater over induction than over acceleration; it was high in relation to epidural anaesthesia and less good for other types of anaesthetic. Among the live births, reports of the baby's weight fell in the same half-pound group in 82% of instances and within adjoining groups for a further 12%. There appeared to be a tendency for mothers to report a slightly higher weight. In general agreement was less good for the stillbirths than for the live births.

Probable reasons for the discrepancies are discussed. Problems of precise definition, inaccuracies and inadequacies in the medical records and limitations of women's knowledge appeared to be the main sources of disparities.

Consanguineous marriage is preferred in many countries, especially by Muslims. Despite the increasing education rate in Saudi Arabia, the prevalence of consanguineous marriage does not seem to be decreasing as quickly as expected. The present study aimed to investigate the current prevalence of consanguineous marriage among educated married adults in Riyadh and to determine the factors favouring it. The cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017–18 using an online questionnaire. A total of 550 questionnaires were sent to married adults of both sexes and 417 responded, giving a response rate of 75.8%. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: the first section asked for demographic data such as age, sex, educational level, residential area and family size. The second part was about consanguineous marriage and its degree if present, family history of consanguineous marriage and level of awareness of its potential negative impact on offspring. It was found that the prevalence of consanguineous marriage among the participating educated adults was 39.8% and most of these were married to a first cousin. Neither level of education nor age affected the likelihood of consanguineous marriage, but predictors for the practice among the educated participating adults were having a family history of consanguineous marriage, having consanguineous parents and having a personal preference for consanguineous marriage. In conclusion, the prevalence of consanguineous marriage among educated adults in Riyadh was still high in 2018, especially among first-cousin relatives, and this was related to family history and personal preference rather than educational level or age. It is recommended that further research is conducted to assess the level of knowledge about, and attitude towards, consanguineous marriage among adults in Saudi Arabia.

Dowry practice, women’s autonomy to use dowry (‘dowry autonomy’) and the association of these with domestic violence were examined among young married women in India. Data were taken from the ‘Youth in India: Situation and Needs Study’ carried out in six Indian states during 2006–07. A total of 13,912 women aged 15–24 years were included in the study. About three-quarters of the women reported receiving a dowry at their marriage, and about 66% reported having the ability to exercise autonomy over the use of it – ‘dowry autonomy’. Dowry given without ‘dowry autonomy’ was found to have had no protective value against young women experiencing physical domestic violence in India. While women’s participation in paid employment increased the odds of them experiencing physical domestic violence, women’s education and marrying after the age of 18 years reduced the likelihood of experiencing physical domestic violence.

A study has been made from parish records of the patterns of marital movement from 1837 to the present day in the Otmoor region of Oxfordshire. The social classes of brides and grooms have been taken into account.

It is shown that the spatial mobility of the different classes is markedly different, and in the earlier part of the period this difference is evident even on a very local scale. Social class distributions themselves vary according to population size and this variation affects the nature of marital exchange between the different populations in the area. Spatially exogamous as compared with endogamous grooms, however, do not appear to differ in their preferences for the social class of brides. There is marked assortative marriage for social class in Classes II and IV but both brides and grooms of Class III, especially in the present century, choose their partners more or less randomly with respect to social class.

Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore genetic contributions to disparities in health were developed using in-depth qualitative interviews with editorial staff from nineteen genetics journals, focusing on the methodological and conceptual mechanisms required to make race/ethnicity a genetic variable. As such, these analyses explore how and why race/ethnicity comes to be used in the context of genetic research, set against the background of continuing critiques from anthropology and related human sciences that focus on the social construction, structural correlates and limited genetic validity of racial/ethnic categories. The analyses demonstrate how these critiques have failed to engage geneticists, and how geneticists use a range of essentially cultural devices to protect and separate their use of race/ethnicity as a genetic construct from its use as a societal and social science resource. Given its multidisciplinary, biosocial nature and the cultural gaze of its ethnographic methodologies, anthropology is well placed to explore the cultural separation of science and society, and of natural and social science disciplines. Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore disparities in health suggest that moving beyond genetic explanations of innate difference might benefit from a more even-handed critique of how both the natural and social sciences tend to essentialize selective elements of race/ethnicity. Drawing on the example of HIV/AIDS, this paper demonstrates how public health has been undermined by the use of race/ethnicity as an analytical variable, both as a cipher for innate genetic differences in susceptibility and response to treatment, and in its use to identify ‘core groups’ at greater risk of becoming infected and infecting others. Clearly, a tendency for biological reductionism can place many biomedical issues beyond the scope of public health interventions, while socio-cultural essentialization has tended to stigmatize ‘unhealthy behaviours’ and the communities where these are more prevalent.

This study examined 28 anthropometrical and physiological traits in 107 married couples living in the province of Biscay (Basque Country, Spain). The aim was to verify the existence of a phenotypic and/or social preference when choosing a mate. For this, correlations between pairs of spouses were estimated by maximum likelihood, and a model of familial transmission (path analysis) was applied in order to test if social homogamy between mates existed. The results provide significant evidence of phenotypic as well as social homogamy in several of the studied traits. Even if an assortment existed when choosing a mate for bony traits such as height, the effect of cohabitation cannot be discounted as the main causal factor for the high phenotypic resemblance observed between spouses for body composition traits. In addition, with the social homogeneity of the studied sample, significant evidence of the existence of social homogamy between mates was only found for 20% of the studied variables.

Medical Officer of Health reports for London boroughs, 1900–19, are analysed to determine the incidence of neonatal breast-feeding, duration of lactation, reasons for early supplementation and premature weaning, and their relationship with infant mortality. In a sample of 222,989 infants, breast-feeding rates were very high. Over 90% were breast-fed in the first month, almost 80% at 3 months, and over 70% at 6 months. The poorest boroughs had the highest rates of neonatal breast-feeding, but also a higher incidence of early supplementation and premature weaning. There was a significant positive correlation between breast-feeding and infant mortality due to poor maternal diet and health, poor nutritional quality of supplementary and substitute foods, and the use of an unhygienic feeding bottle. Energetic campaigns to counteract these problems probably contributed to the fall of infant mortality in this period.

In a retrospective study, the impact of breast-feeding on the survival probabilities of children born to women in hospitals in Cairo, Egypt, is estimated. The analysis shows that early cessation of breastfeeding is associated with higher mortality and the effects are more severe the lower the education level of the mother.

Delivery records from Tanzanian hospitals reveal a marked seasonality of births in areas with holoendemic malaria. Accepted explanations of variations in conception rate are inadequate to account for these seasonal variations. The magnitude of the variation increases with higher parity but it has decreased over the past decade. The differences are related to different activity patterns of younger and older women, and to recent changes in the rural economy. Conception rate has a negative association with rainfall 4 months earlier; birth seasonality is therefore considered in relation to the agricultural cycle. While seasonal variations in sexual activity and pregnancy loss may be contributory factors, female stress due to the combination of malarial infection and physical exhaustion emerges as the major cause of seasonally depressed fecundity in areas with holoendemic malaria.

Of 40 women who had abortions between 20 and 24 weeks gestation and had felt fetal movements, eleven had a history of significant menstrual irregularity, six had changed their minds about an initially welcome pregnancy, five had been told that they were not pregnant, and five had either been refused by the NHS or were unable to get sympathetic advice at an earlier stage. In only fourteen cases was ‘wishful thinking’ or an unrealistic attitude to the possibility of pregnancy an important cause.

Twenty-five of the women were followed-up at a minimum of 3 months after their abortion. Five reported feeling depressed because of their abortion but none of them had required specialist advice, and only one had time off work or school for this reason.

The data in this paper are drawn from interviews with a probability sample of 2652 once-married women under the age of 60 currently living with their husbands in 1971 in metropolitan Melbourne. Although drawing from other material from the 2½ hr interviews the discussion concentrates upon the family size ideals of these wives. In addition to the customary measures of ideal family size, new measures of the upper and lower limits of acceptable family size are described, together with the reactions of the whole sample to a wide range of specified family sizes and the reasons for accepting or rejecting them. It is shown that the eventual achievement of zero population growth will almost certainly depend upon the two-child family becoming the norm for the great majority of couples, since childless or one-child marriages are desired by only 2% of couples. Currently, however, 20% of wives consider two-child families to be undesirably small. The marked religious, country of origin and educational differentials in acceptance of the two-child family are also discussed.

All 8th-form schoolgirls from the municipality of Odense in Denmark were asked at what age they reached menarche, and 886 girls (97·6%) gave this information. There is no evidence for seasonality in the time of birth but for far more girls than expected menarche occurred during winter or summer and fewer than expected during spring and autumn. This pattern appears primarily in girls living in the suburbs and was not seen in those living in central Odense. The seasonality appears to be brought about by differences in mean age at menarche according to time of the year at birth.

The average age at the time of operation was 38 years for husbands and about 35 years for wives. Most of the men had, at least, thedesired number of living children before they underwent vasectomy. Theaverage number of living children at the time of operation was 3·3. About88 % of the men were white. About 38% were Catholics, 28 % Protestant and 18% Jewish. The men were highly educated; over 17% had apost-graduate degree. Nearly 60% were engaged in professional, managerial or technical occupations. This points to superiority of vasectomized men in their economic and educational position. Public media sources played the most important role in referring persons for vasectomy. About 57% of the men had learned through articles published in newspapers or magazines. Large family size and non-availability of an ideal contraceptive were the most important reasons for seeking vasectomy.

Recent evidence indicates a rising trend in premarital sexual activity among young people in Iran. However, little is known about the extent to which young people’s sexual behaviours expose them to HIV and STI risks. This study aimed to assess HIV/STI-related sexual risk-taking behaviours (correlates and determinants) and HIV/STI risk perception among male university students in Tehran. A representative sample of male university students (N=1322) studying in government and private Tehran universities completed an anonymous questionnaire survey in 2013–14. Respondents were selected using two-stage stratified cluster sampling. About 35% of respondents had ever had premarital sex (n=462). The majority (about 85%) of the sexually experienced students reported having multiple sexual partners in their lifetime. More than half (54%) reported inconsistent condom use over the previous month. Despite this exposure to HIV/STI risk, the respondents had a very low level of HIV/STI risk perception. Only 6.5% were highly concerned about contracting HIV over the previous year, and an even lower percentage (3.4%) were concerned about contracting STIs in the near future. Early sexual debut (<18 years), studying in a private university, ever watching pornography and work experience were found to be significant predictors of having multiple sexual partners. Younger age at sexual debut, having one lifetime sexual partner and poor HIV knowledge were significant predictors of inconsistent condom use over the preceding month. HIV prevention programmes among Iranian youth need to focus on the postponement of first sex and enhancement of HIV/STI knowledge in the light of increasing access of young people to pornography.