Women’s subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters

Page, Abigail E.; Ringen, Erik J; Koster, Jeremy; Borgerhoff Mulder, Monique; Kramer, Karen; Shenk, Mary K.; Stieglitz, Jonathan; Starkweather, Kathrine; Ziker, John P.; Boyette, Adam H; Colleran, Heidi; Moya, Cristina; Du, Juan; Mattison, Siobhán M.; Greaves, Russell; Sum, Chun-Yi; Liu, Ruizhe; Lew-Levy, Sheina; Kiabiya Ntamboudila, Francy; Prall, Sean; Towner, Mary C; Blumenfield, Tami; Migliano, Andrea B; Major-Smith, Daniel; Dyble, Mark; Salali, Gul Deniz; Chaudhary, Nikhil; Derkx, Inez E; Ross, Cody T.; Scelza, Brooke A; Gurven, Michael D.; Winterhalder, Bruce P.; Cortez, Carmen; Pacheco-Cobos, Luis; Schacht, Ryan; Macfarlan, Shane J.; Leonetti, Donna; French, Jennifer C.; Alam, Nurul; Zohora, Fatema Tuz; Kaplan, Hillard S.; Hooper, Paul L.; Sear, Rebecca

Abstract

While it is commonly assumed that farmers have higher, and foragers lower, fertility compared to populations practicing other forms of subsistence, robust supportive evidence is lacking. We tested whether subsistence activities—incorporating market integration—are associated with fertility in 10,250 women from 27 small-scale societies and found considerable variation in fertility. This variation did not align with group-level subsistence typologies. Societies labeled as “farmers” did not have higher fertility than others, while “foragers” did not have lower fertility. However, at the individual level, we found strong evidence that fertility was positively associated with farming and moderate evidence of a negative relationship between foraging and fertility. Markers of market integration were strongly negatively correlated with fertility. Despite strong cross-cultural evidence, these relationships were not consistent in all populations, highlighting the importance of the socioecological context, which likely influences the diverse mechanisms driving the relationship between fertility and subsistence.

Citation

Page, A. E., Ringen, E. J., Koster, J., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Kramer, K., Shenk, M. K., …Sear, R. (2024). Women’s subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(9), Article e2318181121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2318181121

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 27, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Feb 12, 2024
• Publication Date: Feb 27, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 17, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 19, 2024
• Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0027-8424
• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 121
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: e2318181121
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2318181121
• Keywords: demographic transition, cross-cultural analysis, subsistence-based populations, fertility, anthropological demography
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2292249