Abstract
Turkey is a country which is demographically unclassifiable because its persistently high infant mortality is out of line with its socio-economic indicators and its low fertility. The rapid modernisation of Turkey over the last three decades, which might have been expected to have had a favourable effect upon infant survival, has not in this respect lived up to expectation. The stresses resulting from economic growth and the high level of female workforce participation have perhaps tended to distract women from child care. Also, neither Ottoman nor republican Turkish traditions have encouraged an enhancement of the status of childhood.
Unconventional sources: ethnology, literature, cinema, are deployed here to construct an impression of the cultural environment of the mothers, fathers and families of dead children. Change of attitudes, very slow as far as childhood is concerned, have not yet caught up with the transition in fertility. An infant mortality rate of 53 per 1000, accompanying a total fertility rate scarcely higher than 2, is a combination difficult to find anywhere else.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abişel, N., 1994. Türk Sinemasì Ñzerine Yazilar (Writings on Turkish Cinema). Ankara, ed. Imge.
Aries, Ph., 1960. L'enfant et la vie familiale sous l'ancien régime. Plon, Paris.
Al Saadi, A. F., 1996. 'Infant mortality and the economic embargo in Iraq?', Population Bulletin of ESCWA 44.
Acipayamli, O., 1974. Türkiye'de Dogumla ilgili Adet ve inanmalarìn Etnolojik Etüdü (An ethnological study on the customs and beliefs concerning childbirth in Turkey). Ankara, Atatürk Ñniversitesi Yayìnlarì.
Agha, H., Chasteland J-C., Courbage, Y., Ladier-Fouladi, M. and Mehryar, A., 1997. Famille et fécondité à Shiraz - 1996. Dossiers et Recherches N°60, INED, Paris.
Aksit, B. and Aksit, B., 1989. 'Sociocultural determinants of infant and child mortality in Turkey?’ Social Science and Medicine 28: 571–576.
Barbieri, M., Blum, A., Dolgikh, E. and Ergashev, A., 1996. 'Nuptiality, fertility, use of contraception and family policies in Uzbekistan'. Population Studies 1: 69–88.
Behar, C., 1975. 'Les tables de mortalité de la Turquie', in L'Analyse démographique et ses applications, Ed. du CNRS, Paris.
Behar, C., 1995. 'The fertility transition in Turkey - Reforms, policies, and family structure', in Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer (ed.), Family, Gender and Population in the Middle East, Policies in Context. American University in Cairo Press, Cairo.
Behar, C., 1997. 'La Turquie: Une transition démographique presque achevée', in Jean-Claude Chasteland and Jean-Claude Chesnais (eds.), La Population du Monde - Enjeux et Problèmes. Paris, INED-PUF, 331–343.
Boisvert, M. and Meyer, F., 1994. 'Mortalité infantile et consanguinité dans une population endogame au Québec'. Population 3.
Bongaarts, J., 1990. 'The measurement of wanted fertility'. Population and Development Review 3.
Boukhaïma, S., 1997. 'Recomposition du système de santé'. La Syrie de l'après guerre froide: permanence et changements, Maghreb-Machrek 158: 38–46.
Bulatao, R., 1979. On the Nature of the Transition in the Value of Children. East-West Population Institute, Honolulu.
Bulut, A., Gokcay, G., Neyzi, O. and Shorter, F., 1991. 'Perinatal, neonatal and under-5 mortality in Istanbul based on representative samples of burial Records', in Seminar on Measurement of Maternal and Child Mortality. Population Council, Cairo.
Caldwell, J., 1979. 'Education as a factor of mortality decline: an examination of Nigerian data'. Population Studies 33: 395–413.
Caldwell, J., 1986. 'Routes to low mortality in poor countries'. Population and Development Review2: 171–220.
Coale, A. and Watkins, S., 1986. The Decline of Fertility in Europe. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Courbage, Y., 1997. 'L'Indonésie: Une transition presque achevée dans le plus grand pays d'islam', in J-C. Chasteland and J-C. Chesnais (eds), La population du monde - Enjeux et problèmes. Paris, INED.
Courbage, Y. and Fargues, Ph., 1997. Christians and Jews under Islam. Tauris, London.
Courbage, Y., 1999. 'Political and economic issues of fertility transition in the Arab world - Answers and open questions', Population and Environment 4.
Das Gupta, M., 1987. 'Selective discrimination against female children in India'. Population and Development Review 1: 77–100.
Delaney, C., 1995. The Seed and the Soil. University of Carolina Press.
Desgrees du Lou, A. and Pison, G., 1995. 'Le rôle des vaccinations dans la baisse de la mortalité de enfants au Sénégal'. Population 3: 591–620.
DHS and Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, Ankara, 1994. Fertility trends, women's status and reproductive expectations in Turkey.
Dorsay, A., 1989. Sinemamìzìn umut yìllarì (Years of hope of our cinema). Istanbul, ed. Inkìlap.
Duben, A. and Behar, C., 1991. Istanbul Households - Marriage, Family and Fertility - 1880-1940. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Farah, A. and Preston, S., 1992. 'Child mortality differentials in Sudan'. Population and Development Review 8: 365–383.
Ferry, L., 1996. L'homme-Dieu ou le sens de la vie. Grasset, Paris.
Gokalp, A., 1994. 'Mariage de parents: entre l'échange généralisé et le mariage parallèle - le cas de la Turquie', in P. Bonte (ed), dans Epouser au plus proche: Inceste, prohibitions et stratégies matrimoniales autour de la Méditerranée.Editions de l'EHESS, Paris, pp. 439–453.
Guçhan, G., 1992. Toplumsal Degisme ve Türk Sinemasì (Social change and Turkish cinema). Ankara, ed. Imge.
Gürsoy, A., 1992. 'Infant mortality: a Turkish puzzle'. Health Transition Review 2/2: 131–149.
Gürsoy, A., 1996. 'Abortion in Turkey: A matter of state, family, or individual decision'. Social Sciences Medical Review 42(4): 531–542.
Gürsoy, A., 1995. 'Child mortality and the changing discourse on childhood in Turkey', Children in the Muslim Middle East. ed. E.W. Fernea, UT Press, 199–221.
Hill, K. and Upchurch, D., 1995. 'Gender differences in child health: Evidence from the demographic and health surveys'. Population and Development Review 21: 127–151.
Institut National D'Etudes Démographiques, 1993/1997. 'Tous les Pays du Monde 1997'. Populations et Sociétés 282 and 326.
International Labour Organization, 1995. Yearbook of Labour Statistics 1995. Geneva.
Kagitcibasi, C., 1982. The changing value of children in Turkey. East-West Population Institute, Honolulu.
Ladier-Fouladi, M., 1997. 'The fertility transition in Iran'. Population, An English Selection 9: 191–214.
Lee, J., Feng, W. and Campbell, C., 1994. 'Infant and child mortality among the Qing nobility: Implications for two types of positive check'. Population Studies 48: 395–412.
Longone, P., 1971. La mortinatalité. Populations et Sociétés 34. INED, Paris.
Martorell, R. and Ho, J., 1984. 'Malnutrition, morbidity and mortality', in W. H. Mosley and L. C. Chen (ed), Child Survival: Strategies for Research. the Population Council, New York, 49–68.
Ministry of Health and Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, 1994. Demographic and Health Survey - Turkey - 1993. Ankara.
Mosley, W. H. and Chen, L. C. (ed.), 1984. Child Survival: Strategies for Research. the Population Council, New York, 49–68.
Muhuri, P. and Preston, S., 1991. 'Mortality differentials by sex in Bangladesh'. Population and Development Review 3: 415–434.
Myntti, C., 1993. The social determinants of child mortality and mortality in Yemen: Insights from social science theory. Paper presented at the IUUSP 22nd General Population Conference, Montreal, Canada.
Nicolas, M., 1972. Croyances et pratiques populaires turques concernant les naissances. Publications Orientalistes de France, Paris.
Örnek, S. V., 1971. Anadolu Folklorunda Ölüm (Death in Anatolian folklore). Ankara Ñniversitesi, Ankara.
Örnek, S. V., 1979. Geleneksel Kültürümüzde Çocuk (The child in our traditional culture). Is Bankasì Yayìnlarì, Ankara.
Örnek, S. V., 1977. Turk Halkbilimi (Turkish ethnography). Ankara.
Özön, N., 1968. Türk Sinemasì Kronolojisi (Chronology of Turkish cinema). ed. Bilgi, Ankara.
Papchild/Central Bureau of Statistics, 1995. Mas'h al-joumhouriat al 'arabiya es souriya haoula sohhat al um oua al toufl, Al takrir al raissi (Syrian Arab Republic Survey on Mother and Child Health - Main report). Damascus/ Cairo.
Pinker, S., 1997. 'Why they kill their newborns', The New York Times, November 2, 1997, 50–54.
Pritchett, L., 1994. 'Desired fertility and the impact of population policies'. Population and Development Review 1: 1–55.
Schepher-Hughes, N., 1985. 'Culture, scarcity and maternal thinking: Maternal detachment and infant survival in a brazilian shantytown'. Ethos 13(4): 291–317.
Scognamillo, G., 1988. Türk Sinema Tarihi (History of Turkish cinema). ed. Metis, Istanbul.
Scrimshaw, S., 1978. 'Infant mortality and behaviour in the regulation of family size'. Population and Development Review 4/3: 383–403.
Senser, S., 1993. 'Türk Tiyatrosunda Çocuk’ (The child in Turkish theatre), dans Toplumsal Tarihte Çocuk (The child in social history). Tarih Vakfì Yurt Yayìnlari, Istanbul, 92–101.
Senior, N., 1856. A Journal Kept in Turkey and Greece. London.
Shorter, E., 1975. The Making of the Modern Family. Basic Books, New York.
Shorter, F., 1989. The Decline of Infant and Child Mortality: Estimates from the Turkish Census. The Population Council, Cairo.
Shorter, F. and Macura, M., 1983. Trends in Fertility and Mortality in Turkey: 1935-1975. National Academy Press, Washington.
Sokal, A. and Bricmont, J., 1997. Impostures Intellectuelles. Odile Jacob, Paris.
Sommerfelt, A. and Piani, A., 1997. Childhood Immunization: 1990-1994. Demographic and Health Survey, Calverton.
Tan, M., 1993. 'Çocukluk: Dün ve Bugün’ (Childhood yesterday and today), in Toplumsal Tarihte Çocuk (The child in social history). Tarih Vakfì Yurt Yayìnlarì, Istanbul, 11–31.
Tansug, S., 1993. 'Anadolu'da Çocuk Giyimi’ (Children garments in Anatolia), in Toplumsal Tarihte Çocuk (Child in social history). Tarih Vakfì Yurt Yayìnlarì, Istanbul, 127–132.
Tuncbilek, E. and Ulusoy, M., 1988. 'The relationship between infant mortality and consanguineous marriages', in Infant Mortality in Turkey: Basic Factors. Haceteppe University, Ankara.
Unalan, T., 1993. 'Sex preferences in Turkey'. Turkish Journal of Population Studies 15: 23–32.
United Nations, 1996. Child Survival, Health and Family Planning Programs and Fertility. New York.
United Nations, 1997. World Population Prospects as Assessed in 1996. New York.
Veinstein, G., 1989. 'L'empire dans sa grandeur', in R. Mantran (ed), Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman. Fayard, Paris, 165–167.
Wolpin, K., 1997. 'Determinants and consequences of the mortality and health of infants and children', in M. Rozensweig and O. Stark (eds), Handbook of Population and Family Economics, Vol. 1B. North-Holland, Amsterdam, 484–557
World Bank, 1997. 1997 World Development Indicators. Washington.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Behar, C., Courbage, Y. & Gürsoy, A. Economic Growth or Survival? The Problematic Case of Child Mortality in Turkey. European Journal of Population 15, 241–278 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006273128242
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006273128242