ABSTRACT
Where ‘natural’ fertility prevails, that is fertility in the absence of any deliberate attempt to control the number or spacing of births, it is the other proximate determinants (for example, marriage, the period of post-partum infecundity, abstinence from sexual relations or spousal separation) which must be held responsible for significant differences in fertility. As has been shown already in Chapter 2, the mean duration of breastfeeding, the prime determinant of the period of post-partum infecundity, is quite similar for all the Malian populations surveyed. Since contraception use and induced abortion rates are both negligeable, the principal factor affecting the measured total fertility rates is the pattern of marriage. Thus, a more detailed examination of marriage systems should be a productive way of accounting for observed fertility levels and differentials.
