Belonging and control in population history

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the Myanmar family is characterized by features of matrifocality as well as to analyze whether there is female dominance in Myanmar .
The respondents in our sample were selected with non-probability sampling due to political situations in Myanmar, along with our limited budget. The sample for the study was drawn from respondents living in several areas in Myanmar, which may represent the regions with different geographic, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The total sample size was 545 respondents.
The findings are as follows. First, most of the respondents agreed to not only the stronger hierarchical relationships between parents and children but also the priority of family interests. Second, the bonds related to the female family members are stronger than the bonds related to the male family members . Third, mother’s relatives are regarded as more intimate family members. The respondents have received (and provided) economic and emotional support from the mother ‘s side, have visited and lived closer to the mother ‘s side. Fourth, over two-thirds of the respondents agreed that the mother not the father, has more power in the family. Rather than men, women have the responsibility of controlling the family budget, and are more likely to be considered a source of wisdom.

In the course of transition to adulthood, adolescents are exposed to sexual and reproductive health risks. India, being a traditional society, somehow inhibits its adolescents in redressing their queries and thus many of them lack correct knowledge to make informed sexual and reproductive decisions. The study aims at understanding the attitude of adolescents towards sexual matters; involvement in sexual activities and exploring their experiences of pre-marital sex (PMS) or extra marital sex (EMS) through qualitative and quantitative analysis. The study has used data from Youth Study, 2006-07 focused on unmarried and married men and women in the age group of 15-29 years in rural and urban settings. The study highlights that substantial percentage of adolescent considered hugging or kissing acceptable but at the same time they did consented PMS or EMS. Adolescents do involve in romantic relationships and sometimes get engaged in PMS or EMS; however these are widely under cover. As Indian society is in transitional phase, there is need to provide culturally appropriate sex education to cater the adolescents sexual and reproductive health needs to prevent them from perversion’ for taking advantage of demographic dividend in India.

The paper analyses the realities of maternal health seeking-behaviour among the Sabiny in relation to health policy ideals. It is based on a study of maternal health among the Sabiny, Eastern Uganda that was conducted in 2011 and 2012. Secondary quantitative data were analysed and primary data were collected using in-depth interviews with mothers; focus group discussions with mothers and fathers; key informant interviews, and observation of delivery settings (both at health facilities and home). Findings reveal that the majority of Sabiny women opt for homebirths, with around a quarter delivering at health facilities. Some women would prefer to deliver at a health facility but do not manage to do so. Sabiny culture is a determining factor in delivery setting. Comprehension and accommodation of Sabiny concerns within available maternal health services is limited, highlighting the need to develop cultural competence among health workers and methods of accommodating (health-promoting) local practices. This should be accompanied by improved patient care and a narrowing of the gap between health workers and Sabiny communities by revitalizing outreach and community-based health interventions. The paper highlights how the implementation of policy should be tailored to specific local contexts.

The study aims to analyze the gap between perception and actual behavior of Indian husbands about the sexual rights of their wives, using NFHS (2005-06)data. Comparison is done between whole India and the HIV prevalent states, the results showing far narrow gap in the latter. 90 percent of Indian husband has a positive perception about wife sexual rights. However, a wide gap prevails between their perception and behaviors; evident from the figure that about 85-95 percent husbands of the victimized wife uphold a positive perception. Young, poor, Muslims, nonworking and alcoholic men have more propensity to break their own supportive ideals forcing their wives for unwanted sex. In the HIV prevalent states of India, wives experience less unwanted sex supposedly due to their high literacy and empowerment as compared to whole India. Moreover, there is a consistency in the perception and behavior of the husbands in these states.

In spite of modernization and women’s increasing role in the market economy, the practice of dowry in India is becoming more wide spread evidences shows that, the value of dowry is increasing. In India marriage is typically arranged and the practice of dowry is common in most part of the country (Karve, 1965). Data for this study is taken from “The Youth in India: Situation and Needs” survey conducted during 2006-2007. a sub nationally representative survey, and Crime in India (2008-2011) from NCRB to explore this dimension minutely. Results reveals that dowry death is on rise from 2008 to 2011 at the national level. Finding indicates that dowry is universal phenomenon in all the sates and it is not restricted with religion. To note here, dowry increases with economic standard, however chance of receiving and giving is less in love marriage and in those who are living in nuclear families. Interestingly men in southern states are having significantly higher chance of receiving dowry. But it is interesting to note that if we see it through the lens of crime records southern states stands other way round. At regional level percentage share of dowry death in Bihar is around 15 percent.

This paper explores the relationship between nation's competitiveness and Olympic results of 2008 Beijing and 2010 Vancouver. We analyzed these data by correlation coefficient, regression analysis, and path analysis. We chose every nation which has at least one bronze medal as a unit of analysis. We found the following outcomes from the analysis of Beijing Olympic. First, the direct effect of population size on medals is positive but weak. Second, the indirect effect of population size on medals is positive and about twice larger than that of direct effect. Third, the direct effect of GDP on medals is negative and very weak. Fourth, the indirect effect of GDP on medals is positive and about ten times larger than that of direct effect. Fifth, the most effective path on medals is the number of athletics which come from population size and GDP. We also found the following outcomes from the analysis of Vancouver Olympic. First, the direct effect of population size on medals is statistically not important. Second, the direct effect of GDP on medals is positive and statistically significant. Third, the most effective path on medals is the number of athletics which come from GDP. We concluded that population is important variable in summer Beijing Olympic and that GDP is important variable in winter Vancouver Olympic.

We examine how people understand and conceptualize developmental idealism – a cultural schema that links ideas about societal and familial development. For centuries, scholars and policy makers have written that the world is dynamic, changing from traditional to modern, that modern families are causes of modern societies, that modern societies are causes of modern families, and that modern societies and families are better than traditional ones. These ideas have spread widely around the world, with the capacity for fostering change. The question motivating our research concerns the extent to which people link together the various aspects of developmental idealism as a package. Do individuals who endorse one aspect of developmental idealism endorse other aspects, or is there little relationship between how individuals evaluate the various aspects? We investigate these issues using 2008 data collected in Nepal. Our data indicate that Nepalis link some aspects of developmental idealism together but not others.

Social learning and social influence (or social pressure) through interpersonal channels have been thought to play a major role a myriad of demographic phenomena including the acceptance and use of contraceptives, the pace of family building, morbidity, migration decisions and the use of medical services. The present study focuses role mother’s personal network on her health knowledge and care practices of under-five children using primary data collected 379 respondent of rural Odisha. Both quantitative and qualitative data collected will be used for the purpose of analysis. A summative knowledge index was developed using responses by mothers about different childhood illness and care practices. Results that the size of network is directly associated with age, autonomy and children ever born of women. Better educated network members are more likely to speak about modern medicine methods whereas aged and uneducated members mostly advice them about traditional ritual and culture. The qualitative data shows that mother-in-laws are the most influential persons for traditional rituals and herbal medicines. In each village, there are at least two persons other than health personals who help and advises for treatments.

The focus of the present article is to assess inter-state differential among states of India in the context of changing status of women and social opportunities. To determine women’s changing status, different indicators like female literacy rate, median age at first marriage and first birth, using modern contraceptive, received at least one Antenatal checkup, Institutional delivery, exposed to any source of media, work status, involved in decision making. However overall literacy rate, percent of urban population, household with piped drinking water, any toilet facility, electricity facility, house type as pucca, full vaccination coverage, crude birth and death rate and total fertility rate are considered as social indicator. To examine the association between two dimensions from NFHS-1 to NFHS-3, we created two indices named as Women Status index and Social Development Index using Taxonomic approach. The nexus between social development and women status has been figured out with help of correlation and upshots proves the intense association between two dimensions. Results reveal that during NFHS-1 women’s status is observed highest in Kerala and lowest in Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. However with enhancing social opportunities, status is improving but its degree is still very low in northern states of India.

Brazil has experienced enormous religious changes in the past half century, primarily characterized by a sudden drop in the number of Catholics along with a major increase in the proportion of Protestants and people without any religious affiliation. The exact nature of these changes, however, is poorly understood from a demographic and sociological perspective. This paper examines changes in the proportion of religious affiliation (Mainline Protestants, Pentecostals, Neo-pentecostals, Catholics, and those without religion) across different birth cohorts that we built using individual-level data from several decennial Censuses of Brazil (1970-2010). Drawing on Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort (HAPC) and Cross-Classified Random Effects models (CCREM), we examine the extent to which age, period, and cohort processes characterize religious changes in Brazilian society controlling for sex, education, level of urbanity, and geographic area.