ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the relationship between fertility and variation in economic strategy among a population of Tzeltal Maya migrants to the Lacandon Forest, Chiapas, Mexico. There is a widespread tendency to assume that people choose to promote or limit their fertility. Effective reproductive decision-making requires both effective means and a sociocultural context conducive to fertility regulation. Women's fertility careers were divided between time in the reproductive span spent on a finca, in colonias, and within the current economic strategy in El Tumbo. Preliminary analysis indicated there was no change in the period fertility rate between 1935 and 1979. Infant mortality may affect fertility by suppressing lactational restraint on ovulation, thus shortening birth intervals infant mortality may be a cultural response to high fertility, in cases of selective neglect and infanticide. In the El Tumbo population, selective neglect of neither females nor males is evident, and infanticide, even in the case of twins, is rare.
