Population dynamics among the Totos of West Bengal: a positive response to culture contact.

The population structure of the Toto tribe at Totopara, a small village in West Bengal, District Jalpaiguri, is studied in this report. Since 1951 the Totos have been coming more and more in contact with the outside world and undergoing a process of cultural and developmental change. Using data from census records for the years 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1951 and 1979-80, as well as interviews with all Toto heads of families or their wives, demographic data was collected on age sex structure, marital status, fertility, birth rate, death rate and population growth trends in the precontact and contact era. A total of 130 families and 697 people were recorded for 1980. 48% were under age 15; 44% were between 15 and 50 years old; and only 7% were over 50. No marriage was reported in the age group below 10 to 14 years. The male sex ration in 1980 was 104:100. Traditional practices still play a role in population structure. Individuals below 12 years of age are not considered responsible enough to be entrusted with tasks needing efficiency and experience on the part of the performer. Since most of the marriages are arranged on the basis of bringing in additional household help, this limits marriages in the younger age groups, starting from 10 to 14. Reproductive maturity appears rather late in both sexes of the Totos, confirmed by low fertility rates in the age groups 15 to 19 and 20 to 24. The crude birth rate has increased from 36.1/1000 in 1959 to 43.0/1000 in 1980. The Totos have a higher rate of fertility in the age groups 35 to 39, attributed to not using any known conventional contraceptive. The data are compared to fertility and demographic variables for other isolated groups, including the Asmats, Australian migrants, Hutterites and populations at West Bengal, Assam, and Mipur. At present the Toto population shows a trend towards increase.