Dissertation Research: The Effects of Infertility on Status and Access to Resources Among WaMakonde Women of Tanzania

本项目涉及加州大学戴维斯分校人类学学生的论文研究，研究不孕对非洲坦桑尼亚社会妇女地位的影响。该提案将检验一个假设，即不孕妇女将因离婚、缺乏资源和普遍缺乏声望而承受婚姻压力，这取决于妇女在当地亲属网络中的地位。此外，该提案将着眼于儿童劳动在其母亲的一般地位地位中的作用。方法包括对一个完整村庄的调查样本，对该村妇女分层亚样本进行更深入的访谈，以及时间分配研究。这项研究很重要，因为非洲人口增长率非常高，并且被称为包容社会，其中群体福利高于个人福利。这种细致的研究将梳理出女性声望高低的原因，因为这与她们生育的孩子数量有关。我们知识的进步将对人口计划人员有用，他们必须设计出当地人口可以接受的限制生育的政策。此外，它还增加了我们对世界这一重要地区的专业知识。

This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of California-Davis, studying the effects of infertility on the status of women in a Tanzanian society of Africa. The proposal will test the hypothesis that infertile women will undergo marital stress because of divorce, lack of resources, and general lack of prestige, subject to the women's' position in local kin networks. In addition the proposal will look at the role of children's labor in their mother's general status position. Methods include a survey sample of a complete village, more in-depth interviews of a stratified subsample of women of the village, and a time allocation study. This research is important because Africa has a very high population growth rate and is known as containing societies in which the group welfare is promoted above that of individuals. This sort of fine-grained research will tease apart the causes of high and low prestige among women as they relate to the number of children they have. The advance in our knowledge will be useful to population planners who must design policies to limit reproduction which are acceptable to the local population. In addition it adds to our expertise about this important region of the world.