Abstract
This paper examines Guinean womens perspectives on childbearing family size and contraception from different stages of the life course or kare (in Mandinka). The kare begin with deng (a child) and continue through ni sunkuru salibani and to muso ba koro (the highest stage comprised of the oldest women who are closest to the ancestors). Despite some older womens claims that family size is shrinking there is no statistical evidence of a change in fertility. Using a life course framework helps to account for some of the older womens observations. Womens reproductive intentions vary according to their life course stage and both their actions and explanations of their own and other womens behavior reflect this variation. Yet it is women in the younger kare who say they want large numbers of children (with the exception of women in school) and those of the older kare who speak more about limited household resources and the need for contraception. While the life course framework explains a good deal of the variation in reproductive talk and behavior one must also take into account historical changes that have occurred over the past 50 years which also have a bearing on the life perspectives of women of different cohorts. (authors)
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