Breast feeding, birth interval and polygyny in Nigeria

Alfred A. Adewuyi

Social Science & Medicine, 1987, vol. 24, issue 7, 573-580

Abstract: Polygyny has routinely been claimed to facilitate rules and taboos relating to postpartum sexual abstinence. However, in Nigeria polygyny cannot wholly explain length of postpartum taboo following child birth on the ground that competition among cowives to out do one another in child-bearing results in a tendency of higher fertility and hence shorter postpartum taboo in polygynous households than that in monogamous families. Economic factors have been adduced as reasons explaining the recent tendency for mothers in polygynous families to have longer postpartum abstinence than their counterparts in monogamous households. Specifically, for young mothers aged 15-34, bearing children in quick succession is no longer attractive as in essentially traditional cultures where husband's commitment to caring for children is taken for granted. Hence, the tendency for women in polygynous housholds to adhere more strictly to rules and taboos relating to postpartum abstinence could be associated to the changing roles of women as they affect their responsibility with respect to the maintenance and training of their children rather than to the institution of polygyny per se.

Keywords: postpartum; taboo; breast; feeding; birth; interval; polygyny (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1987
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