The essays collected in this book explore a new and important field of study--the interrelationship between population growth and decline and changes in technology, culture, and social organization. They were generated by a discussion of Ester Boserup's anti-Malthusian theory that the increased pressures of population on resources triggered evolutionary changes in the technology, culture, and social organization of historical agricultural societies. Each author has reacted to the "Boserup Model" both in terms of his own sets of data and his personal theoretical inclinations; yet a common theme emerges--that changes in population pressure are a "sometimes gentle, sometimes compelling [but] ever-present force" in history and society.Chapters are arranged according to the types of data they present. The first half of the book deals with agriculture as a subsistence base, while the second half treats broader problems of cultural change or intensification in the context of technological diversity. The book itself is based on a conference, "Population, Resources, and Technology," which was organized by anthropology professor Brian Spooner and held at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970.Contents: "The Evolution of Early Agriculture and Culture in Greater Mesopotamia: A Trial Model, " Philip E. L. Smith and T. Cuyler Young, Jr.; "Demography and the "Urban Revolution" in Lowland Mesopotamia, " Robert McC. Adams; "From Autonomous Villages to the State, a Numerical Estimation, " Robert L. Carneiro; "A Regional Population in Egypt to circa 600 B.C., " David O'Connor; "Population, Agricultural History, and Societal Evolution in Mesoamerica, " William T. Sanders; "Plow and Population in Temperate Europe, " Bernard Wailes; "Some Aspects of Agriculture in Taita, " Alfred Harris; "Farm Labor and the Evolution of Food Production, " Bennet Bronson; "Sacred Power and Centralization: Aspects of Political Adaptation in Africa, " Robert McC. Netting; "The Iranian Deserts, " Brian Spooner; "Demographic Aspects of Tibetan Nomadic Pastoralism, " Robert B. Ekvall; "Population Growth and Political Centralization, " Don E. Dumond; "Prehistoric Population Growth and Subsistence Change in Eskimo Alaska, " Don E. Dumond; "Population Growth and the Beginnings of Sedentary Life among the !Kung Bushmen, " Richard B. Lee; "The Intensification of Social Life among the !Kung Bushmen, " Richard B. Lee; "Biological Factors in Population Control, " Solomon H. Katz; "The Viewpoint of Historical Demography, " John D. Durand.
- ISBN10 0262191024
- ISBN13 9780262191029
- Publish Date 15 December 1972
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 18 September 2010
- Publish Country US
- Publisher MIT Press Ltd
- Imprint MIT Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 512
- Language English