title: Reproductive decision-making in the Upper Ramu District, Papua New Guinea: cognitive aspects of adaptive problem-solving.
abstract: This paper identifies specific interrelationships between political-economic, ecological, health and cultural parameters that shape reproductive choice in rural lowland families of the Usino region, Upper Ramu District, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Additionally, it compares their reproductive choices and strategies with those of upland groups in the same district. Lowland and upland cultural groups occupy distinct technological niches and follow distinct adaptive reproductive strategies consistent with their different perceptions of the value of children. In both cases, reproductive decisions are largely outcomes of economically rational cost-benefit analyses founded on divergent definitions of ecological, political, economic and technological conditions. This paper examines how reproductive decision-making reflects and is structured by Usino perceptions of the value of children, relative economic opportunity and health status; it elucidates the social levels at which these decisions are made and the adaptive rationality of those decisions; and it suggests both blind and intentional mechanisms of cultural selection.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010219:Papua New Guinea; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D026712:Value of Life