Bridewealth and birth control: low fertility in the indonesian archipelago, 1500-1900

摘要

Those interested in population issues in Asia will be generally aware of the demographic transition taking place in that area. In countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Thailand this transition is more or less complete, while in Indonesia it is either complete or close to completion. The Indonesian fertility rate has been decreasing for some time, as has the rate of natural increase. In just 40 years Indonesia has undergone a drop in the crude birth rate from over 45 per thousand population in the 1950s to about 25 per thousand in the year 2000. The 2000 figure for the total fertility rate is 2.27 births per woman (Future 2002: 133), while replacement level is usually held to be 2.1.