Fécondité et Famille en Martinique: Faits, Attitudes et Opinions

Leridon, Henri, Elisabeth Zucker & Maïté Cazenave, Fécondité et famille en Martinique: faits, attitudes et opinions, Travaux et documents (Institut national d'études démographiques (France)); cahier no. 56. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1970.

Fécondité et famille en Martinique: faits, attitudes et opinions. Présentation d'un cahier de l'I.N.E.D, Population, Année 1970 25-1 pp. 125-128.

De l'introduction:

Afin de faire le point sur les problèmes liés à la fécondité, la préfecture de la Martinique a demandé à l'I.N.E.D., en liaison avec l'I.N.S.E.E., de mener un enquête spécifique. Cette enquête devait répondre à plusieurs objectifs; outre l'apport des données de fait sur la structure familiale, les types d'unions et le rythme des naissances, elle devait renseigner sur la connaissance que les Martiniquaises ont des méthodes de régulation des naissances, sur les attitudes à l'égard de la dimension de la famille et de l'utilisation des différents procédés contraceptifs, et sur la pratique des méthodes de régulation des naissances.
Cette sorte d'enquête se rattache aux études dites de "type C.A.P." - des mots connaissance (C), attitude (A) et pratique (P), tels qu'ils ont été définis plus haut - qui ont été faites dans plus de trente pays, le plus souvent à la demande des gouvernements désireux de définir une politique familiale adaptée aux conditions de leurs pays. Ces études ont eu le mérite de réfuter certains préjugés souvent répandus, et de remédier à l'insuffisance des renseignements fournis par les recensements et les statistiques de l'etat civil sur les comportements des familles en matière de procréation. Grâce à ces enquêtes, on dispose d'informations sur la variabilité des vœux d'une population quant à la dimension de la famille, sur les raisons qui poussent les familles à décider du nombre de leurs enfants et de l'echelonnement des naissances, ainsi que sur leur connaissance des méthodes traditionnelles et modernes de limitation des naissances et leur volonté de les utiliser.

Excerpt from introduction:

In order to take stock of the problems related to fertility, the prefecture of Martinique asked the I.N.E.D., in liaison with the I.N.S.E.E., to carry out a specific survey. This survey had to meet several objectives; in addition to providing factual data on family structure, types of unions and birth rate, it was to provide information on the knowledge that Martiniquan women have of birth control methods, on attitudes towards family size and the use of different contraceptive methods, and on the practice of birth control methods.
This type of survey is related to so-called "KAP type" studies - of the words knowledge (C), attitude (A) and practice (P), as they have been defined above - which have been made in more than thirty countries, most often at the request of governments wishing to define a family policy adapted to the conditions of their countries. These studies have had the merit of refuting certain often widespread prejudices, and of remedying the inadequacy of the information provided by censuses and vital statistics on the behavior of families with regard to procreation. Thanks to these surveys, we have information on the variability of the wishes of a population with regard to the size of the family, on the reasons which lead families to decide on the number of their children and the timing of births, as well as than on their knowledge of traditional and modern birth control methods and their willingness to use them.

Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam

Stedman, John Gabriel, Narrative of a five years expedition against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, Ed. Rudolf van Lier, Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press, 1971.

Reviewed by Gert Oostindie.

Landeg White’s Ph.D. thesis Stedman’s Narrative: Its Origins & Transformations.

Journal Article by Mario Klarer: Humanitarian Pornography: John Gabriel Stedman's "Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam".

John Gabriel Stedman (1744 – 7 March 1797) was a Dutch-born Scottish soldier who wrote The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796). This narrative covers his years in Suriname as a soldier in the Dutch military deployed to assist local troops fighting against groups of escaped slaves.[1] He first recorded his experiences in a personal diary that he later rewrote and expanded into the Narrative. The Narrative was a bestseller of the time and, with its firsthand depictions of slavery and other aspects of colonialism, became an important tool in the fledgling abolitionist movement. When compared with Stedman's personal diary, his published Narrative is a sanitized and romanticized version of Stedman's time in Surinam.