Deviations from natural fertility caused by salaried work in the cities and commercial agriculture amongst agriculturalist from the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico

A total of 1041 reproductive histories were collected amongst peasant women from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico to determine if the adoption of commercial agriculture or increased dependence on salaried work in the city generated deviations from natural fertility. We analyzed the Age Specific Fertility Rates (ASFR) by cohort using the Coale and Trussell (1974, 1978) method, SMAM (Hajnal, 1953 ) and the probability of achieving pregnancy i (ao, a, ... ai) for women grouped in the 1940-1944, 1945-1949 and 1950-1954 birth cohorts. Women from households practicing subsistence agriculture and those combining it with salaried work in the cities showed a natural fertility pattern. Women from households focusing on commercial agriculture deviated significantly from natural fertility and stopped reproducing some times as early as age 25. We discuss household level changes that may have generated deviations from natural fertility amongst commercial agriculturalists yet leaving the reproductive strategy of households involved in salaried labor in the cities untouched.