Marriage patterns and fertility in three Papua New Guinean populations.

Abstract

Birthplaces of 908 married couples were ascertained in an urban and in two rural Papua New Guinea populations of varying western acculturation. Village endogamy ranged from 87% in the least acculturated group to 34% in English-speaking urban dwellers, but had not declined with age in any of the populations. Language was a partial limitation on choice of spouse though its significance had declined in the younger age groups; the distribution of marital distances implicated urban migration as the major cause of a commenced breakdown in the language group as an isolate. Fertility histories for 1,072 living and dead women are provided, with fertility and mortality indices estimated for the three groups. Differential maternal fertility was most marked in the least socially advantaged group, where 9% of post-menopausal women had never borne a child and where premature maternal death often terminated reproduction. Western acculturation has resulted in some demographic change as evi­denced in positive assortative mating for education in urban English-speakers and by reduced infant mortality in the urban sample.

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