Plural Marriage and Fertility Differentials: A Study of the Yoruba of Western Nigeria

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Abstract
This study employs multiple classification and regression techniques to show how matrimonial, socio-demographic variables and duration of post-partum sexual abstinence influence fertility. A distinction is made between type of marriage and the position a woman occupies in a hierarchically-ordered polygynous union in explaining fertility among a sample of 300 Yoruba women of Western Nigeria. Among all the variables considered, age, place of residence, and age at first marriage appeared to be significantly related to individual fertility. No significant variation in the post-partum variables and fertility between monogamous and polygynous women emerged, neither was domestic hierarchy found to play any major role in childbearing and abstinence practices of our sample of Yoruba women. The effect of contraception on the post-partum variables appeared to be a function of socioeconomic status. The findings imply that: 1) social change may have altered the older connection between polygyny, abstinence and fertility, and 2) reductions in the duration of the post-partum variables, due to relative affluence, can result in significant increases in individual fertility unless effective substitutes are available and used.