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The Future of the Elephant-Bird

1997; Wiley; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2137581

1728-4457

Nancy Folbre,

Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences

IN HIS 1937 article, Kingsley Davis described the demise of the family economy with prescient grace and a memorable turn of phrase: [T]he declining birth-rate, he wrote, 'has resulted from a between our reproductive system (the family) and the rest of modern social organization... '. Something about the phrase ripening incongruity reminds me of a famous children's book by Dr. Seuss, a writer of the same generation as Kingsley Davis who was also concerned about the future.2 In Horton Hatches the Egg, a mother bird who is tired of sitting on her nest asks Horton the elephant to give her a break. Although initially skeptical, he agrees, carefully props up the nest tree so that it will hold his weight, and delicately settles into position. The mother bird flies south for an extended vacation, and Horton remains loyal to his task despite suffering many indignities, including capture by a group of hunters who sell him and his nest to a circus. An elephant sitting on an egg is something people will pay money to see. But well-tended eggs eventually hatch, and just as this climactic event is taking place, the mother bird happens to fly past the circus and remembers what she had left behind. She is ready to claim the emerging chick as her own, but lo and behold, the baby bird has elephant ears and a tiny trunk, and loves no one but Horton. The circus owners are so amazed that they return both animals to the wild where they live happily ever after. The ripened incongruity, an elephant-bird, saves the day. One could interpret this story as a kind of antifeminist tale. After all, the mother bird selfishly went off on vacation and abandoned her nest. On the other hand, she did make arrangements (very successful ones, it seems) for the care of her egg. The real lessons of the story are positive ones: Family values are flexible and can be practiced in surprising ways. Caregivers can be rewarded by receiving care in return. Kingsley Davis would be rightfully skeptical, but in my opinion he needs a dose of Dr. Seuss. And vice versa. In this essay, I argue that we should combine a theoretical analysis of the changing relationship between production and reproduction with a