Social change in adolescent sexual behavior, mate selection, and premarital pregnancy rates in a Kikuyu community
Worthman, C.M.; Whiting, J.W.
Ethos 15(2): 145-165
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0091-2131 PMID: 12315135 DOI: 10.1525/eth.1987.15.2.02a00010Document Number: 352546
This report documents an example of interactions of cultural change with adolescent fertility and marriage patterns in an East African community. Between 1950 and 1980 the rate of unwed motherhood in Ngeca, Kenya, showed a marked increase from 0% in the 1940s to 11.4% in the 1960s. The authors present evidence of recent changes in Kikuyu culture that may account for this change. Traditional Kikuyu culture structured adolescence through status and role changes bounded and reinforced by ritual and instruction. Abandonment of traditional initiation rites and attenuation of the age-set system have most markedly altered the structure of adolescent experience by shifting the content and context of socialization. Major agents for change in this process have been the school, church, and modern economy. Responsibility for mate selection has remained with young people, but the determinants of partner desirability and gender ratios in partner availability have shifted considerably. Traditional criteria of male desirability included ability to pay bridewealth and to provide the wife with land; diligence and demeanor measured female attractiveness. At present, education and wage earning capacity affect partner attractiveness of each sex. The decline of polygyny has both shifted the balance of competition for spouses toward females, and has had significant repercussions in the marital and reproductive histories of males. Decreases in brideprice and reversals in direction of transfers of wealth at marriage are tangible signs of change in the marriage market. Deritualization of genital operations and attendant weakening of the age-set system have interrupted the flow of information on sex behavior and reproduction, controlled physical intimacy, and partner selection reinforced by peer pressure. Denial of contraception, the continued importance of marriage and fertility, and ambivalence toward sexual activity in adolescence all support adolescent sexual experimentation and increasing rates of premarital pregnancy.