Page 474 - Essencials of Sociology

Population Growth 447

FIGURE 14.6 Why the Poor Need Children

Children are an economic asset in the Least Industrialized Nations. Based on a survey in Indonesia, this figure shows that boys and girls can be net income
earners for their families by the age of 9 or 10.

13.5
12.9 13.0
13.0
12.5
Average Age at Which Activity Begins 11.5 9.3 9.5 9.7 9.9
12.0

11.0
10.5

10.0
9.5
9.0
8.5
7.9 8.0 8.8
8.0
7.5
Caring for goats/cattle
Caring for younger children
Caring for chickens/ducks Fetching water Cutting fodder Harvesting rice Working for wages Hoeing
Transplanting rice

Source: U.N. Fund for Population Activities.

To those of us who live in the Most Industrialized Nations, it seems irrational to have
many children. And for us, it would be. Understanding life from the framework of people
who are living it, however—the essence of the symbolic interactionist perspective—
reveals how it makes perfect sense to have many children. Consider this report by a
government worker in India:

Thaman Singh (a very poor man, a water carrier) … welcomed me inside his home, gave
me a cup of tea (with milk and “market” sugar, as he proudly pointed out later), and
said: “You were trying to convince me that I shouldn’t have any more sons. Now, you see,
I have six sons and two daughters and I sit at home in leisure. They are grown up and they
bring me money. One even works outside the village as a laborer. You told me I was a poor
man and couldn’t support a large family. Now, you see, because of my large family I am a
rich man.” (Mamdani 1973)
Conflict theorists offer a different view of why women in the Least Industrialized Nations
bear so many children. Feminists argue that women like Celia have internalized values that
support male dominance. In Latin America, machismo—an emphasis on male virility and
dominance—is common. To father many children, especially sons, shows that a man is
macho, strong and sexually potent, a real man, which earns him higher status in the commu-
nity. From a conflict perspective, then, the reason poor people have so many children is that
men control women’s reproductive choices.

Consequences of Rapid Population Growth
The result of Celia’s and Angel’s desire for many children—and of the millions of Celias
and Angels like them—is that the population of the average Least Industrialized Nation