Approaches to low-income group's sexuality: a comparative study of three low-income contexts in Peru.

Abstract

This work, developed between 1985 and 1987, by a multi-disciplinary team from the Instituto Andino de Estudios en Población, examines the cultural dimension of sexuality and fertility of women from popular sectors in Peru.

It intens to explain the cultural processes that fall into the intermediate variables of fertility, such as marriage rate, contraception, breastfeeding and in certain way, abortion. These dimensions of sexual and reproductive life are analyzed according to two explanatory dimensions: generation and cultural context of socialization. The general hypothesis is that a cultural process of homogenization of the values and behaviors has been taking place over sexuality, in such a way that the younger generations will show similar standard behaviors and values no matter their context of socialization, in the meantime, in the older groups there will exist contextual differences in these dimensions.

The methods used were: in the first phase, a demographic survey in localities previously chosen in function of the timing and pace of fertility decline between 1972-1981, and in it's cultural tradition. According to this a popular precinct of Lima, the capital; a poor suburb of an Andean city, Huaraz, and a rural coast town, Pueblo Nuevo were chosen. Some of the statements that are presented were collected during the second phase of the study in base of the applications of qualitative methods such as thematic life stories and focal groups. The sample was made up by 60 women that belonged to four age groups: 20 to 24; 25 to 29; 30 to 34 and 35 and over. Through the life stories it was intented to search the individual testimonies regarding sexuality and reproductive life, while with the focal groups it was intended to elucidate the group values of each group according to their age in each context, about key subjects such as premarital relations, getting in love, the image of gender, abortion, contraception, etc.

 The analysis opposes both the generational as well as the contextual dimension for each of the subjects or moments of the sexual and reproductive life of these women, comparing the individual behaviors with the group values. It's impossible to summarize the richness and complexity of the results, mentioning only that some of the dimensions that go across the different subjects are: the contradiction between individual behaviors and the group values (for example in references to virginity and abortion), the abandonment and desinformation of these women in respect to their sexual and affective life; the little control they practice over their own lifes; the obstinacy of traditional values with respect to gender, maternity and in less value contraception, and the persistency of restrictive socialized traditions and desinformation about sexuality. Two theoric dimensions emerge from the study as hypothesis for future studies, the first refers to the cognitive process of sexuality, where, in general experience precedes the explanation of the fact, and the second refers to the little or lack control over their lives, which limits their capacity to plan their future even in those asoects more intimately related to their role as wive and mothers.