Abstract In many nations economic development has been associated with lower rates of fertility. Educational and occupational opportunities attendant to development are known to lower fertility, but the way familial changes mediate between economic development and fertility is less well understood. Varying studies have hypothesized that familial changes could impact upon fertility via inheritance, production patterns, gender roles, or marriage rules; but a lack of systematic data has made it difficult to isolate specific effects. The investigators will examine two Tamang villages in Nepal, chosen because they represent markedly different levels of economic development. Through extensive fieldwork and sample surveys they will relate fertility to household and family patterns, and relate the latter to variations in the larger social organization of the villages. Data will be collected from multiple cohorts to permit the investigators to infer how changes have been occuring.
