[...]
"In reality, then, studies of gender and demographic change are forced to compromise the ideal
study design (as are studies of any form of social change resulting from the aggregation of
individual actions). Past studies have used several alternative strategies. Some have considered
aggregate data only (e.g. Mauldin and Berelson 1978). Such studies are able to incorporate temporal
variation into the analysis, but are unable to demonstrate that there are individual-level
connections between gender conditions and demographic outcomes. Another strategy is to examine
cross-sectional variation, substituting intercultural for intertemporal variation. This strategy
was used in a much cited aggregate analysis of kinship, gender, and demographic conditions across
the states of India conducted by Dyson and Moore (1983)."
[...]
[...]
"As is well known, one weakness of cross-sectional studies for making inferences about social or
demographic change is that cross-sectional relationships need not match over-time relationships.
For example, although maternal education has a strong, inverse relationship with child mortality
at the individual level in almost every developing country of the world that has been studied,
the over-time relationship between female literacy or education and child mortality rates often
is weak, nil, or even positive ( Cleland 1990). A cross-sectional relationship between gender
systems and demographic conditions may be consistent with an over-time relationship, but it does
not prove that one exists. Nevertheless, as research on a number of social science issues suggests,
cross-sectional studies are often the best starting point for understanding the forces that cause
social or demographic change. Even a multi-level, comparative study of the type that Mason ( 1993)
and Smith ( 1989) recommend is quite complex and expensive, and must confront the problem that
seemingly identical survey questions may have very different meanings in different cultural settings."
[...]
[...]
"Unfortunately, many people remain unaware of the great diversity of Africa, believing it to have only
a poor, rural, and homogeneous black population. Any such characterization is certainly a mistake because
the continent is indeed one of many contrasts. Vast deserts, savannahs, and rain forests exist in Africa.
Large, rapidly growing metropolises rise near villages and hamlets in which reside millions engaged in
traditional, subsistence agriculture. At the same time, many others work in the mining of large mineral
reserves. All these African people--whether urban or rural, industrial workers or white-collar
workers-represent a wide variety of racial and ethnic groups The United Nations has classified the 56
African countries into five regions, based upon social and economic characteristics. The original
classifications placed the entire continent into three regions (UN, 1949, 1958). Then, in 1963 the
present five regional classifications were adopted (UN, 1966). The seven countries that border the
Mediterranean Sea make up North Africa. The inhabitants of this region are predominantly of white
racial stock, being descendants of people from south western Asia. Most are Muslims."
[...]
