Economics and fertility

Abstract

This study explains the fertility transition among Guam's people from natural high to controlled low fertility over several generations. Descriptive statistics from US Census data from 1901–1990 illustrate that Guam experienced a demographic transition beginning before World War II. Descriptive statistics comparing Guam with the analyses of the original value of children (VOC) studies demonstrate that Chamorros are similar to other Americans in valuing children for the social–psychological satisfactions they provide. However, Chamorros continue to emphasize child-rearing values of discipline and respect, a characteristic found only among Filipinos in the original VOC countries. This social structural change in the composition of Guam families is the result of changing economic conditions and the subsequent changes in the social–psychological VOC to Guam families, as the island has undergone modernization and development. The changes in the social–psychological values of children are social transformations in what having and raising children means to people.

Keywords:

• Family structure
• Fertility
• Demographic transition

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the Chamorro women of Guam who gave me very personal information for this study. Their cooperation and willingness to participate and share their lives and opinions is much appreciated.

Notes

1 Women interviewed for life histories were selected based upon age and residence. They lived in central Agana (Guam's major population center before WWII) and several southern villages. These women were participants in the Servicio Para I Manamko (Services for the Elderly Program) interviewed at village community centers.

2 The extent to which this practice continues is illustrated by the following quote from a Chamorro woman: “[My auntie] said something in Chamorro … I can't repeat it … It sounded like an anecdote … it was something like ‘the children will always be my children, I can always get another husband’ …” (Calvo & Furukawa, 1995).

3 Another example is the plant Cassia alate, or candle bush, used locally as medicine. Although known as take biha in Chamorro, it is also called Akapulco/Acapulco because of its origins (as it is popularly known in the Philippines). It is important to note that introductions, like foods or plants, were incorporated but did not supplant the indigenous practices of the Chamorro culture.

4 Obviously, there were exceptions to this. One elderly woman interviewed said that her biological father, a Filipino, was sent back to the Philippines soon after the Americans took over in 1898.

5 Categories for 1920 included farming and farm labor, fishermen, salt makers, blacksmiths, carpenters, machinists, tailors, seamstresses, weavers, shoemakers, cable operators, merchants and storekeepers, teachers, nurses, bookkeepers, clerks, midwives and further categories of unskilled labor.