TY - JOUR
T1 - "Looking for children"
T2 - The search for fertility among the Sara of southern Chad
AU - Leonard, Lori
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this research was provided by a J. William Fulbright Fellowship through the Institute for International Education, a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Grant from Harvard University, and a Population Council Fellowship. I would like to thank the University of Chad, the Institute National des Sciences Humaines, the Chadian Ministry of Health and Rhemadj-Haroune Tatola, the mayor of Sarh (who granted permission to carry out this study), Tadjinati Ridjiti and Isabelle Tatola (whose assistance was invaluable), and the men and women in Sarh who kindly agreed to share their experiences. I would also like to thank Stacy Leigh Pigg and the anonymous reviewers for their substantial contributions to this paper.
Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - Despite the long history of infertility and childlessness in Central Africa, and the ongoing demand for treatment of fertility-related problems, the interpretations and experiences of the men and women living in the region vis-à vis the inability to have children remain largely unrecorded. In this paper I examine what the Sara, one of Chad's largest ethnic groups, have to say about fertility problems, and how these views are linked to changes in the social, cultural, and economic landscape of southern Chad in the 20th century. I describe the iterative and inductive process, commonly referred to by the Sara as "doing research," that the Sara use to explore the reasons for the inability to conceive or bear children in the face of multiple reproductive threats. The Sara's causal constructions convey a holistic and multifaceted perspective on this demographic anomaly - a perspective that is missing from most demographic and epidemiologic accounts and that has important implications for public health policy and practice.
AB - Despite the long history of infertility and childlessness in Central Africa, and the ongoing demand for treatment of fertility-related problems, the interpretations and experiences of the men and women living in the region vis-à vis the inability to have children remain largely unrecorded. In this paper I examine what the Sara, one of Chad's largest ethnic groups, have to say about fertility problems, and how these views are linked to changes in the social, cultural, and economic landscape of southern Chad in the 20th century. I describe the iterative and inductive process, commonly referred to by the Sara as "doing research," that the Sara use to explore the reasons for the inability to conceive or bear children in the face of multiple reproductive threats. The Sara's causal constructions convey a holistic and multifaceted perspective on this demographic anomaly - a perspective that is missing from most demographic and epidemiologic accounts and that has important implications for public health policy and practice.
KW - Central Africa
KW - Chad
KW - Infertility
KW - Population policy
KW - Reproductive health
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U2 - 10.1080/01459740210618
DO - 10.1080/01459740210618
M3 - Review article
C2 - 12005468
AN - SCOPUS:0036371893
SN - 0145-9740
VL - 21
SP - 79
EP - 112
JO - Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
JF - Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
IS - 1
ER -