Caroline H. Bledsoe, professor of anthropology at Northwestern University, is the author of Women and Marriage in Kpelle Society and is the coeditor of several books, most recently Fertility and the Male Life Cycle in the Era of Fertility Decline.

"Making brilliant use of the puzzle of women in The Gambia using modern contraception as a means to increase their fertility, Bledsoe shows - in a way no one previously has done so well - just why anthropological insights are needed in demographic research. Contingent Lives offers a rich contribution both to social theory and to social methodology." - David Kertzer, Brown University

Caroline H. Bledsoe, professor of anthropology at Northwestern University, is the author of Women and Marriage in Kpelle Society and is the coeditor of several books, most recently Fertility and the Male Life Cycle in the Era of Fertility Decline.

"Making brilliant use of the puzzle of women in The Gambia using modern contraception as a means to increase their fertility, Bledsoe shows - in a way no one previously has done so well - just why anthropological insights are needed in demographic research. Contingent Lives offers a rich contribution both to social theory and to social methodology." - David Kertzer, Brown University

Caroline H. Bledsoe, professor of anthropology at Northwestern University, is the author of Women and Marriage in Kpelle Society and is the coeditor of several books, most recently Fertility and the Male Life Cycle in the Era of Fertility Decline.

"Making brilliant use of the puzzle of women in The Gambia using modern contraception as a means to increase their fertility, Bledsoe shows - in a way no one previously has done so well - just why anthropological insights are needed in demographic research. Contingent Lives offers a rich contribution both to social theory and to social methodology." - David Kertzer, Brown University