Description:
Social and cultural change is a major feature of the modern world. George Mur‐dock and John Whiting have provided a theoretical framework for measuring social and cultural change by describing residence patterns and family structures, by showing how they may be linked, and by showing how changes in them can signal cultural change. This study tests the Murdock and Whiting hypotheses by determining the prevalences of polygyny and patrilocality in eight Shipibo Indian villages located in the eastern Peruvian Amazon. It also tests the hypothesis, derived from Murdock and Whiting's conclusions, that polygyny is linked to lower fertility by examining the effects of cultural change on fertility. Three indicators of cultural change are identified and measured: residence patterns, family structure, and fertility. [Shipibo, polygyny, patrilocality, Peru, Amazon, cultural change, fertility]