I have the following table from my preliminary Meatu district health data. It still blows my mind because it basically contradicts all my previously held thoughts about religion, Tanzania and contraceptives.
The "Contraceptives" column refers to the number of couples that report using any form of contraception. "Percent using" is the portion of households identifying with a particular religion that use contraceptives.
First of all, 67% of households interviewed did not identify with any religion, not even traditional beliefs. This contradicts everything my Swahili teacher told us about being a good East African ("one should always at least identify as a major religion, even if one never prays"). I guess not so in Meatu? People do report being largely fatalistic, though. 35% of women report that their fertility decisions (do you want another child?) are "up to God" and this group is made up of only one quarter of those that identify with a religion.
The real kicker, though, is the fact that couples who identified with a religion were more likely to use contraceptives. You can see from the number of households and the number of women reporting contraceptive use that the sample size is small. However, Catholics (88 households) have almost twice the overall rate of contraceptive use! Someone tell Paul Ryan?
My hypothesis on this second observation is that affiliation with a larger religion in these extremely rural villages is actually a signal of being more cosmopolitan. There's also a good chance that official doctrine in the Catechism of the Catholic Church isn't making its way all the way to Mwajidalala and Longalonhiga. I'm not complaining.
As for any explanation for the dearth of reported religious identification, my only hypothesis is that I asked the wrong person. I asked men. This time around, I'm asking women. I'm otherwise extremely surprised that individuals don't identify as more religious.
I'm accepting any and all theories, hypotheses and shots in the dark as to why.
The real kicker, though, is the fact that couples who identified with a religion were more likely to use contraceptives. You can see from the number of households and the number of women reporting contraceptive use that the sample size is small. However, Catholics (88 households) have almost twice the overall rate of contraceptive use! Someone tell Paul Ryan?
My hypothesis on this second observation is that affiliation with a larger religion in these extremely rural villages is actually a signal of being more cosmopolitan. There's also a good chance that official doctrine in the Catechism of the Catholic Church isn't making its way all the way to Mwajidalala and Longalonhiga. I'm not complaining.
As for any explanation for the dearth of reported religious identification, my only hypothesis is that I asked the wrong person. I asked men. This time around, I'm asking women. I'm otherwise extremely surprised that individuals don't identify as more religious.
I'm accepting any and all theories, hypotheses and shots in the dark as to why.
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