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Age structure and sex-biased mortality among Herero pastoralists.

Abstract：

:Details of the population pyramid of living Herero and Mbanderu of Botswana suggest that infant and childhood mortality of males has been substantially greater than that of females. Direct tests from reproductive histories show that the hazard ratio is approximately 3 to 1 in favor of female survival in infancy and 2 to 1 in childhood. This biased mortality began in about 1960 in concert with recovery from infertility. A model of asymmetric fitness benefits between siblings is weakly supported. Logistic regression shows that heterogeneity among mothers explains much of the mortality of children under 2 years of age. A direct test for heterogeneity provides strong support for the hypothesis. Field methods appropriate for anthropologists are contrasted with those that are standard in demography. Finally, a contrast between these data and those from south Asia suggests that strong sex preferences may exist without being culturally articulated. Cultural norms do not necessarily coincide with behavior. :Ethnographer collected reproductive histories from about 600 women basically among Hereros in western Ngamiland, Botswana. They constructed a population pyramid which revealed a generation time of 19-24 years (shorter than that of most human populations). The Herero have had pathologic sterility, which may account for the shortened generation time. Fertility returned around 1960. Further, the pyramid had a missing bulge of males in the 1960s. Applying direct tests to the reproductive histories, they ascertained that, beginning around 1960, female infants were almost 3 times as likely to survive then males (p=.000001) and female children were 2 times as likely to survive than males (p.01). Yet the risk of infant mortality for males in Botswana was only 1.5 times that of females. The logistic regression showed that male death was more random than female death and that the risk rose with previous deceased siblings but fell with the number of previous living siblings of both sexes. These results indicated that heterogeneity among mothers in their ability to keep their children alive existed and that characteristics of the mothers and not those of the child were risk factors for infant and early childhood mortality. Next they used a likelihood ratio to test for heterogeneity among mothers which revealed that 72% of the mothers never had a daughter die and the risk for the remaining mothers was .20 (p.001), but the risk for having a son die was .03 for 55% of the mothers and .3 for 45% (p.0001). This test also indicated very significant heterogeneity among women. Still the women always denied any sex preference or differential care of their children. Yet they did admit the higher death rate for male infants. Therefore stated cultural beliefs are not necessarily guides to behavior. In conclusion, public health workers in Botswana should concentrate on mothers' characteristics.

journal_name

Hum Biol

journal_title

Human biology

authors

Harpending HC,Pennington R

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

1991-06-01 00:00:00

pages

329-53

issue

eissn

0018-7143

issn

1534-6617

journal_volume

pub_type

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Age structure and sex-biased mortality among Herero pastoralists.