Population and progress in a Yoruba town / Elisha P. Renne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Renne, Elisha P.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Yoruba (African people)--Nigeria--Itapa Ekiti--Social life and customs.

Yoruba (African people).

Yoruba (African people)--Nigeria--Itapa Ekiti--Population.

Yoruba (African people)--Nigeria--Itapa Ekiti--Statistics.

Women, Yoruba--Nigeria--Itapa Ekiti--Social conditions.

Women, Yoruba.

Social conditions.

Population.

Manners and customs.

Itapa Ekiti (Nigeria)--Population.

Itapa Ekiti (Nigeria).

Itapa Ekiti (Nigeria)--Social life and customs.

Nigeria--Itapa Ekiti.

Genre:

Statistics.

Physical Description:

xii, 280 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2003]

Summary:

This study of local perceptions of population and development in a rural southwestern Nigerian town questions some of the underlying assumptions of the demographic theory of fertility transition. Fertility transition theory and modernisation theory from which it derives have not explained why fertility remains high, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, despite the presence of some conditions associated with its decline in Western societies, nor why development, despite a plethora of projects, has failed to 'take-off'. As this study demonstrates, neither fertility change nor development follows a universal trajectory. Whether lower fertility or Western models of development are viewed as possible or advantageous reflects cultural ideas about proper social relations as well as political and economic conditions, which may hinder or facilitate these changes.

Contents:

Part I Anthropological and Demographic Concerns

1 Introduction: Paradoxes of Progress 3

2 Historical and Anthropological Aspects of Itapa: Centripetal and Centrifugal Tendencies 19

3 Demographic Dimensions of Itapa-Ekiti 42

Part II Bodies, Persons and Social Relations

4 Women's Bodies, Virginity and Marriage 71

5 Child-fostering, Blood Ties and Parenthood 89

6 Burial, Rebirth and Relations with the Dead 111

Part III Population, Development and the State

7 Personal Hygiene, Public Sanitation and Western Education 135

8 Houses, Descendants and Land Tenure 155

9 Counting Bodies: Censuses, Vital Registration and the Creation of Ekiti State 175

10 Conclusion: Local Development, Politics and Two Funerals 197

Appendix I Research Methods and Materials 211

Appendix II Important Dates in Itapa and Nigerian History 228

Appendix III Contraception Ever Used by Itapa-Ekiti Women, based on 1992, 1997 Surveys 232.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references ( pages [252]-268) and index.

ISBN:

0472089838

OCLC:

52541790