Atoll-dwelling people of Tokelau in the central Pacific have been studied in their home environment and after migration to the industrial culture of New Zealand (NZ). The NZ migrants reflect the predominantly male and young composition of the migrating group. Recent migration has eased the lot of the surplus young women from Tokelau, resulting in earlier marriage and less long-term spinsterhood. The apparently higher fertility of women residing in NZ is largely explained by selection of female migrants who already have two or more children. Earlier menarche and earlier marriage in NZ probably contribute little. Future trends will be monitored, and a decline in migrant fertility is expected, if Tokelauans follow the pattern of other Polynesian migrants to urban environments.

A comparative study has been made of Japanese and American maternal behaviour and infant development from birth to 3 months of age, especially in relation to infant feeding practices. The effect of cultural differences on the initiation and prolongation of breast-feeding is discussed and consideration is given to factors such as alertness of the mother during the birth, post-partum procedures in hospital, family sleeping arrangements and the general style of maternal care. The possibility of a post-partum “critical” period, and its effect on infant behaviour and development, is discussed.

There is evidence that systems analysis has advanced sufficiently to have major theoretical and practical possibilities for anthropology. This paper presents support for this suggestion from studies of populations in two areas of the US: a Black migrant group in Mississippi and a Midwestern urban group. Some problems and potential applications of systems research are discussed.

This investigation was part of a longitudinal study of mental development of seventeen Jamaican children who were admitted to hospital with severe protein energy malnutrition. The children were compared with 20 adequately nourished children who were admitted to hospital for other reasons.

Previous research had shown that, 1 month after the children left hospital, both groups had similar scores on a modified Caldwell Inventory of Home Stimulation. When, in the present investigation, the inventory was repeated 24 months later, scores remained similar in both groups. When compared with data collected from a survey in a poor neighbourhood, again the scores of the neighbourhood children were similar to those of the malnourished group. The malnourished children were however living in poorer houses and had failed to catch up to the other groups in nutritional status.

Comparison of these findings with those from other countries suggests that the ecology of malnutrition differs in different cultures and that Jamaican mothers of malnourished children are characterized by poverty rather than poor maternal–child relationships.

It also appears that, at this age, poor levels of home stimulation were not a major factor in producing the deficit in development manifested by the malnourished group.

Data from 375 Ethiopian mothers show lactations of between 25 and 30 months in the majority, very prolonged even by African standards. Maternal nutritional status, as shown by body weights, was low due to very low food energy intakes. With frequent suckling already raising prolactin levels, these very low energy intakes may also result in yet more prolactin secretion. New pregnancies are delayed and birth intervals extended beyond normal African standards by all these factors.

The social consequences to the patient who suffers from vesico-vaginal fistula are discussed. Patients are mainly young, come from subsistence farming backgrounds, are often considered to have brought shame on their families, and frequently lose their husband's support, especially if their condition is of long standing. In a society that places a high value on childbearing they have little hope for the future.

When invited to deliver this year's Caradog Jones Lecture, I was familiar with neither the lecture as an institution nor the work of the man in whose honour it is held. However, in view of the interest of Caradog Jones in the quality of British society it became clear that the subject of the lecture should be related, amongst other things, to the improvement of social conditions in general and to the improvement of the quality of the population of Great Britain in particular.

It is hardly necessary to say that the present state of British society leaves room for improvement, beset as it is with severe social and economic problems. Now the key to the solution of these problems must be a sound understanding of the way social and economic systems work. What is apparent from the briefest scrutiny of the economic and social reforms attempted in the recent past is that they have not succeeded and this, I strongly suggest, is because the theoretical premises on which they were founded are unsound.

Over the course of a year, 162 women requesting termination of pregnancy were assessed by interview by both a consultant gynaecologist and a medical social worker. Only thirteen (8%) were referred as requiring medical advice and most of these basically had social problems. In contrast, 85 (52%) were found to require the help of the medical social worker for either detailed counselling or various supportive measures.

For 926 persons aged 5 years and over, a large majority of the population of three western Newfoundland communities, associations of ocular refraction with inbreeding (Wright's F) have been evaluated. Some evidence was found among children of a tendency towards myopia with increasing homozygosity and a strong such tendency in the elderly (over 60) was found. No relationship of refraction to F was apparent for persons aged 15–60 years. When the strong relationship of refraction value to nearwork activity was taken into account the relationship to F was enhanced.

Although much research has been devoted to understanding differences in contraceptive behaviour among socieconomic groups of married women, little is known about group differences among young unmarried women. In this paper, data from a national survey of women 15–19 years of age are used to study the relationship between socioeconomic status, sexual activity, and contraceptive use. The socioeconomic status of the young women is related to age at first intercourse, contraceptive use at first intercourse, regularity of use, and use of medical methods. The results indicate that both an earlier initiation of sexual activity and less regular use of contraceptives in all probability lead to a concentration of pregnancies in the lower socioeconomic groups.

Distributions of reported coital rates are positively skewed. The means of such distributions seem to be roughly proportional, not to their variances, but to their standard deviations.

The coefficient of variation of distributions of reported coital rates—at least for relatively homogeneous samples—is of the order of 2/3. It is estimated that the coefficient of variation of the distribution of true (as opposed to reported) values would be about ½ at the time of first conception.

In a follow-up of males and females after voluntary surgical sterilization, the social characteristics of the applicants, their fertility and contraceptive history, their motivation, the indication for and mode of surgical contraception, the physical and psychological consequences of the operation, and the outcome of the selection and counselling procedures applied, were studied in a sample of 275 applications with a total of 540 subjects. The survey comprised the pre-operative examination, the first post-operative evaluation 4 months after surgery and the second after 12 months.

The main reasons for applying for sterilization were excess fertility due to contraceptive failures and side-effects of reversible contraceptive methods. Almost all of the patients were satisfied with the operation, one of the highest proportions reported so far. Nevertheless, many experienced a real adjustment period. Notwithstanding the careful pre-operative information and counselling, serious fears were often observed, and many found the operation more severe than expected. For the vast majority of the patients the operation had no influence on their family relations. The sexual relationship too was usually unchanged. If there were changes, the positive effects always exceeded the negative ones.

The high response to both the evaluations and the high proportions of satisfied individuals are in favour of the selection procedures and multidisciplinary counselling and follow-up practised.

Having set out a provisional ‘typology of violence’, the question of violence in sport is considered in its historical perspective, with numerous examples. The question of violence in relation to social bonding is then considered and distinctions are drawn between the types of violence inherent in two differently structured societies, the segmentally and functionally bonded. Contemporary football hooliganism is then considered as developing from segmentally bonded elements in present-day society.

The fifty states of the US were compared in 1971–72 and 1974–75 with respect to percentage apparent conceptions aborted and infant mortality rates attributed to various causes. Only non-vehicle accidental deaths were consistently related to abortion. The correlation is non-linear; non-vehicle accidental deaths were especially high in states with little or no abortion. A decline in non-vehicle accidental deaths from before to after the Supreme Court decision was most pronounced in states where there were fewest abortions before the decision and where increases in abortion occurred following the decision.

Responses of 44 vasectomized voluntarily childless men and 51 vasectomized fathers were compared on the California Psychological Inventory, the Bowerman Scale of Marital Satisfaction and a questionnaire. The childless felt negatively stereotyped, but there were no differences between the parents and childless on marital satisfaction, reported childhood happiness or level of psychological adjustment. There were differences in modes of adjustment, with the childless seemingly less tied to tradition, more inclined to experiment and showing more capacity for independent thought than the parents. The findings suggested that childlessness may be a viable, healthy lifestyle, not determined by or associated with personal or social pathology.

This investigation was prompted by Shuster's (1978, 1980) suggestion that acne should be regarded as a normal feature of adolescence. Acne was recorded and graded in white school children (722 boys and 788 girls) seen at approximately half-yearly intervals from age 9 to 17. Losses over the 8 years of follow-up were 16·8% for boys and 11·4% for girls. Facial acne appeared at an earlier age in girls, the prevalences being estimated to rise to a peak of 75–80% in girls aged 15–16 and 90–95% in boys aged about 17–18 years. However, the prevalence of acne at a given age depended much more upon the level of sexual maturity attained (assessed from a variety of somatic indicators) than upon age per se. On average, acne became manifest at a relatively late stage of puberty, at or shortly after peak height velocity in boys and menarche in girls. Prevalences were not affected by relative obesity nor by socioeconomic status, apparent correlations among girls disappearing when maturity status was taken into account. The proportions of subjects with moderate or severe acne increased with length of time from onset, and only about 10% showed remission during the first 3 years after onset. Acne on the body was observed in 20% of boys and 15% of girls.