ABSTRACT
Norbert Ortmayr’s comparative study offers an assessment of the possibilities and perils of unmarried motherhood in two different contexts—turn-of-the-century Austria and contemporary Jamaica. He combines the methods of the historical demographer with those of the ethnographer. Ortmayr suggests the variety of ways in which a phenomenon like widespread illegitimacy among economically marginal populations is generated and understood. For example, the cultural stigma attached to unwed motherhood in Austria, along with an employment system that forced illegimate children into foster homes, contrasts strongly with the more tolerant Jamaican culture. Ortmayr’s comparison raises questions about the various aspects of illegitimacy—material and cultural—that contribute to the better and worse fates of “fatherless” children in different contexts.
