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Fertility of Women in Polygynous Unions in Rural Eastern Nigeria

1977; Wiley; Volume: 39; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/351134

1741-3737

Alfred O. Ukaegbu,

Family Dynamics and Relationships

Findings based on a retrospective fertility survey of 531 women in polygynous marriages and 1141 women in monogamous unions conducted in 16 traditional Ngwa Ibo villages in eastern Nigeria supported the contention that polygyny reduces fertility; for polygynous wives both the age specific fertility rates and the mean parity for all age categories was lower than for monogamous wives. Since the mean parity for women aged 45-49 was 6 for polygynous women and 8 for monogamous women it is apparent that the two groups differed widely in completed family size. When the mean parity of all wives was compared to the mean parity for successive polygynous wives there was a 15% reduction in fertility for 1st wives a 37% reduction for 2nd wives and a 46% reduction for all succeeding wives. The association between reduced fertility and polygyny was attributed to the wide age differential between polygynists and their wives; for all types of marriages husbands were on the average 11 years older than their wives but for polygynous men the age differential ranged form 13 to 18 years and 78% of the polygynous men were over 50 years of age. In comparison to other African regions the incidence of polygyny for the Ngwa Ibo was low but the intensity was high; only 16% of all married men were polygynists but each polygynist had an average of 2.8 wives. The low incidence of polygyny in this population may indicate that the practice of polygyny is dying out; therefore increased birth control efforts may be needed to offset the loss of polygyny as a fertility depressant. Tables included 1) age specific fertility rates and mean parity by marriage type and by age; 2) mean parity by marriage pattern marriage duration age and by wife order; 3) ideal number of children by wife order; 4) % distribution of spouses by marriage pattern and age; 5) % distribution of polygynous wives aged 15-44 by husbands age; and 6) incidence intensity and ratio of married women/100 married men for Ngwaland and several African regions.