Understanding the prevalence of female sterilization in rural south India

By analyzing the practice of female sterilization in rural Andhra Pradesh, in southern India, this article examines the role culture plays in demographic research. The popularity of female sterilization in rural Andhra Pradesh is shown to be intelligible if the symbolic value of a young mother's reproductive capacity is understood in terms of familial power relations. Through sterilization, young mothers can symbolically push their influential mothers-in-law toward old age, thus increasing their own relative prestige, and they can strive to control the ambiguity surrounding their reproductive functions. This study is based on 14 months of participant observation in three rural villages, a survey of 396 households, and unstructured interviews with 42 women and two men. It shows how demography and anthropology can be mutually supportive in their efforts to clarify population phenomena.