Showing papers by "Ami R. Moore published in 1999"

Plural wives and multiple children: the fertility of polygynists in sub-Saharan Africa.

Abstract: One of the distinguishing features of marriage systems in sub-Saharan Africa is the relatively high levels of polygyny or the marriage of one man to more than one wife. It has been suggested that polygyny increases fertility levels by providing childbearing opportunities for women who otherwise would have remained single. Most of these studies however use women-based data. This paper argues that polygyny is essentially a male family-building strategy. It begins with an assumption that polygyny is a means through which men formally increase their family size relative to what they would have not through monogamy. This is tested by examining the mean number of children ever born and surviving by union type. The analysis in this paper is based on cross-sectional male data from the Demographic and Health Surveys data for selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 1993 and 1996. In general the paper has demonstrated that polygyny is essentially a male family-building strategy and that the desire for more surviving children is one reason for such practice. To illustrate men who are polygynously married had higher (6.4-8.2) average number of living children than those in monogamous unions (3.1-4.3). Data further show that polygyny is associated with the patriarchal system and strong preference for sons. The relationship between the practice of polygyny and its implications for women status and the role that age-gap between husbands and wives plays are also discussed.