National Science Foundation

Cultural Anthropology Program

Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Competition Review Form

Proposal: 9706422

Advisor (Pl): Mulder, Monique

Student (Co‑PI): Frediani

Institution: U Cal Davis

**Title:** Infertility and Resources Among WaMakonde Women of Tanzania

Rating Scale (CIRCLE ONE)

E= Excellent

V= Very Good, G= Good

F= Fair, P= Poor

Research Competence (preparation) of student V

Technical Soundness (Methodology) V

VIntrinsic Merit (Theoretical Significance) V

Utility of Research V

Overall Rating (Not a mean of above ratings but overall evaluation) E

COMMENTS: Mulder/Frediani Effects of Infertility on Status and Access to
Resources among WaMakonde Women of Tanzania

Study will look at effects infertility and sutfertility on Tanzanian
women in terms of resource allocation, family dynamics (social and
status), psychological health.

Research Competence ‑ has done pilot study; has made contact with NGO,
local women and university.

Technical Soundness

Hopes to look at levels of fertility, not just as yes/no variable, which
is useful; will gather information on reproductive and sexual histories;
marital histories; household economics and composition; economics;
relationships with natal family. Data collection strategies and their
relationship to research question clear except for sample size.

How many women in the first sample? How many women will be interviewed
in the second six months? How many women will be interviewed intensively
(3rd six month period)?

Plans for analysis are discussed and clear.

Intrinsic Merit

Good theoretical discussion links research question to larger, debated
issues about relationship of women\'s status and fertility. It\'s not
really clear why there is such a long discussion of effects of
infertility on Western women, but it does bring into relief the lack of
information on psychological consequences of infertility in Africa.
Perhaps the emphasis of existing African literature on epidemiology,
STDs, etc. reflects once more the way that women in developing countries
are treated as \"others.\"

Despite strengths (including the look at psychological issues), I find
the problem formulation relying on a rather narrow reading of the
literature and would suggest that different consequences from
infertility may not be so much cumulative as complex. There are likely
to be intervening factors that also affect stress.

For example, it may be that what is best for a woman is to have enough
children to have economic assistance and time to spend on her own
economic activities, but not too many so as to compromise health and to
keep all her time from economic work.

If the family or community is more valued than the person, then what
might be important to the lineage head/husband is whether the lineage
has enough children, not if a particular woman has children or not. In
other words, the economic effects of sub or infertility may well depend
on residence patterns (minimally whether the household is extended vs.
nuclear; polygynous vs. monogamous). Anecdotal evidence from West Africa
suggests that although subfertile women there may suffer
psychologically, they are often quite affluent, e.g., among the most
active market women. As long as a husband knows that he can get another
(fertile) wife, he may value having a wife who can devote all her time
to work.

Utility ‑ relevant for ongoing concerns about fertility issues in Africa

Overall evaluation ‑ excellent, a strong proposal.

**National Science Foundation**

Cultural Anthropology Program

Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Competition Review Form

Proposal: 9706422

Advisor (Pl): Mulder, Monique

Student (Co‑PI): Frediani

Institution: U Cal Davis

**Title: Infertility and Resources** Among WaMakonde Women of Tanzania

Rating Scale (CIRCLE ONE)

E= Excellent

V= Very Good, G= Good

F= Fair, P= Poor

Research Competence (preparation) of student E

Technical Soundness (Methodology) V

VIntrinsic Merit (Theoretical Significance) E

Utility of Research E

Overall Rating (Not a mean of above ratings but overall evaluation) V

COMMENTS:

This is a very interesting proposal to explicitly examine the impacts of
infertility on women\'s status and prestige (and by implication for the
impact on the women\'s families) among a Tanzanian people. It is a
research topic within the general area of demographic anthropology and
nicely extends the work done there in the tradition of John Caldwell.
The proposal is well‑written, jargon free, and well defended. While I
would like to have seen some more attention to the larger cultural (as
in meaningful) and social organizational contexts (as in kin based
political strategies‑‑l think that the discussion of community level
factors doesn\'t really look at this side of things), this is a fine
proposal. The researcher is well prepared and the researcher\'s mentor
is an important figure in the field.

The investigator is quite right to say that the larger community
contexts of the issue of infertility has not been adequately treated in
the literature Much of this has to do with the tradition
itself‑‑stemming from demography rather than anthropology, nearly all
value of children studies fail to go very far beyond the household.
Those few studies that bring in lineage levels (Meillassoux) are devoid
of the kind of quantitative data to be gathered here. This proposed
research promises an important addition to the literature and I predict
the results will be received with great interest in the demographic
community.

The research plan as presented appears to be quite viable and is
generally sound. I have rated this portion of the proposal lower than
other portions because there is very little in the way of reference to
explicitly methodological sources. While this is not always a failing,
the fact that demography is the most

anal of fields when it comes to methods means that there is an
extraordinarily huge literature out there and the student should
demonstrate some familiarity with it. What I am saying here is that I
think the methodology as presented is sound but that greater confidence
in the investigator\'s having considered multiple issues would have
emerged from reference to the literature. I strongly urge the
investigator to explore materials on micro‑demography, even to the
extent of writing to directors of ongoing projects to ask for their
questionnaires and research proposals. before entering the field.

A computer search of key names will produce much of direct bearing on
the research. John Caldwell is cited, for example, but much of his most
important work is left uncited‑‑and none of his copious methodological
materials are cited or referred to. William Axinn has an important piece
in **Sociological Methods and Research.** Nancy Howell has some primary
methodological essays and chapters for demographic data collection.
Other methodological materials may be found in the literature on family
sociology (Journal of marriage and the Family is a good start). All of
this material will be important to the researcher and needs to be
considered if the product of this research is truly intended to appeal
to a wide audience, as surely is merited.

I rate the proposal as VERY GOOD, trusting that the investigator will
explore this other essential material before going off to the field.
Many of the pieces I mention above, by the way, will be found in the
bibliography of the edited volume by Susan Greenhalgh, **Situating
Fertility,** Cambridge, 1995.

**National Science Foundation**

Cultural Anthropology Program

Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Competition Review Form

Proposal: 9706422

Advisor (Pl): Mulder, Monique

Student (Co‑PI): Frediani

Institution: U Cal Davis

**Title: Infertility and Resources** Among WaMakonde Women of Tanzania

Rating Scale (CIRCLE ONE)

E= Excellent

V= Very Good, G= Good

F= Fair, P= Poor

Research Competence (preparation) of student V

Technical Soundness (Methodology) F

Intrinsic Merit (Theoretical Significance) G

Utility of Research G

Overall Rating (Not a mean of above ratings but overall evaluation) G-F

COMMENTS:

National Science Foundation Proposal 97‑06422

Principal Investigator: Mulder

Co‑lnvestigator: Frediani

This project will investigate the relationship between differential
levels of fertility and how infertility affects women\'s status,
prestige, and access to valuable economic resources throughout their
life cycle among the Muslim Wa Nakonde of Southeast Tanzania. The
investigator hopes to demonstrate that infertile women experience a
lower quality of life both materially and socially. Specifically, she
wishes to see whether childlessness leads to higher levels of poverty
among women. The investigator is contrasting Caldwell\'s theory of
intergenerational resource flow against the behavioral ecological
perspective of parental investment. These two models would suggest
different outcomes of childlessness.

A good deal of the literature review focuses on infertility in western
women. While I would agree that it is important to note the research
that has been done, this seems like too much attention being paid to a
body of literature that is probably not applicable to women in Africa.
It is true that there are many fewer studies of the effects of
infertility, the quality of life for African women. The literature
review would be improved or strengthened by sharpening the focus of the
review more closely to the research questions.

Data collection will take place in three phases. The fimt will be based
on a sample and data for each women in the sample would be collected
regarding reproductive and sexual history, marital history, household
composition, opportunities to alternative income, household economics,
relationships with family. However, there is no discussion of how this
sample will be recruited nor how large it would be.

The second sample will be a selection of six groups of women with: high
fertility, mean fertility, low fertility for women with and without
husbands. It will also be broken down into four age distributions. These
are quite a large number of strata for a stratified sample. Again, the
number of individuals to be included in the sample is not mentioned.
Therefore it is difficult to tell if the size of the sample will support
the kind of analysis it would take to make full use of the strata that
win characterize the sample. In the analysis section, the investigator
says that she will use logistic regression to analyze data collection,
demographic and economic surveys. Deferent levels of fertility will be
tested against multiple independent factom. Again, there is no
discussion of sample size so it is difficult to say whether this type of
analysis will actuary be feasible.

In general I believe this proposal is a bit underdeveloped. It would be
strengthened by a sharpening of the literature review to more directly
justify and anchor the research questions. A number of methodological
details need to be addressed including sample recruitment and size.
While there is a discussion of analysis it is still not clear how that
analysis will address the research questions. This proposal would also
be strengthened by a sharpening of the theoretical discussion and the
theoretical significance of the research. It proposes to examine two
alternative models that are fairly simplistic models. They may not
capture the full range factom that would affect, and be affected by
differential fertility rates among women in Africa. Also, analysis
directed at testing alternative hypotheses drawn from these is not well
developed here.