Abstract
Summary The fertility of pre-modern populations is subject to various inhibiting biological and behavioural factors. One such factor which ranks highly for its fecundity-inhibiting effect in practically all traditional societies, in prolonged breast-feeding. The post-natal abstinence associated with lactation, a widespread custom in tropical Africa, is believed to keep the actual childbearing performance of the populations of this part of the world well below their childbearing potential. Large-scale infertility of a pathological origin has been reported to be responsible for the unusually low birth rates observed among some populations not practising birth control, mostly in central Africa. It is suggested that as the process of modernization begins, fertility-inhibiting factors such as these are weakened or altogether removed, before family planning is practised on any significant scale, and as a result, the natural fertility of these populations increases. It is further postulated that the weakening of...
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