Population, Reproduction and Fertility in Melanesia

Stanley Ulijaszek is a Professor of Human Ecology at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. He co-authored Nutritional Anthropology (1993) and wrote Human Energetics in Biological Anthropology (1995), and is editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Growth and Development (1998). He is co-editor of Homo. Journal of Human Comparative Biology and book review editor of the Journal of Biosocial Science.

• List of Figures and TablesList of ContributorsIntroduction: Population Change, Social Reproduction and Local Understandings of Fertility in MelanesiaStanley J. UlijaszekChapter 1. Fertility and the Depopulation of Melanesia: Childlessness, Abortion and Introduced Disease in Simbo and Ontong Java, Solomon IslandsTim Bayliss-SmithChapter 2. The Impacts of Colonialism on Health and Fertility: Western New Britain 1884–1940C. GosdenChapter 3. Purari Population Decline and Resurgence across the Twentieth CenturyStanley J. UlijaszekChapter 4. Migration and Fertility of a Small Island Population in Manus: a Long-term Analysis of its Sedentes and MigrantsYuji Ataka and Ryutaro OhtsukaChapter 5. Fertility and Social Reproduction in the Strickland-Bosavi RegionMonica Minnegal and Peter D. DwyerChapter 6. ‘Emptiness’ and Complementarity in Suau Reproductive StrategiesMelissa DemianChapter 7. Cognitive Aspects of Fertility and Reproduction in Lak, New IrelandSean KingstonChapter 8. History Embodied: Authenticating the Past in the New Guinea HighlandsMichael O’HanlonChapter 9. Variations on a Theme: Fertility, Sexuality and Masculinity in Highland New GuineaPascale BonnemèreChapter 10. Fertility among the Anga of Papua New Guinea: a Conspicuous AbsencePierre LemonnierIndex

“…provides a significant contribution to our knowledge of changes in fertility through its well-described historical and demographic sections, which in anthropological studies of reproduction are usually missing or lacking in depth… [The volume] successfully display[s] the richness of fertility concepts, practices and solutions in the Melanesian area and their relevance for unmasking some of the historical and contemporary myths on kinship demographic changes.” • Bijdragen. Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania