Human fertility and land tenure in highland Bolivia

Abstract

Basic demographic data of landless and landed peasants from the highlands and valley of Northern Potosi, Bolivia, are compared. Household size and crude birth rates are larger in the highlands than in the valley. Within the highland population, no statistically significant difference was observed between the age‐specific fertility of landless and landed women, nor in the survivorship ratio of their offspring. The prevalence of exchange and reciprocity at the village level may be responsible for the absence of important differences in the fertility and mortality patterns of the landed and landless.