Long neglected by cultural anthropology, the subject of human reproduction is now being retrieved and made the focus of scholarly inquiry. Inspired by developments in feminism, political economy, and practice theory, growing numbers of anthropologists are probing the culture and political economy of reproduction. This book seeks to coax form out of this diverse body of studies, thereby making it accessible to colleagues in other branches of the discipline. Our hope is that, by bringing out the intellectual roots and intellectual promise of this new work, we might move this fundamental feature of human life closer to the center of anthropological inquiry.

Because demographers are the main group of scholars who have studied fertility, building an anthropology of reproduction entails critical reflection on and assessment of their work. Demography has developed impressive techniques for analyzing population data, but theoretical work on the sources of fertility change has lapsed. In seeking to improve the understanding of fertility dynamics, we aim not to reinvent the field of demography, but to create a different kind of demography, one better suited to the anthropological enterprise.

This book originated in a session called Rethinking Reproduction: Toward a Political Economy of Fertility, held at the 1990 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans.