On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes<sup>1</sup>

Cowgill, George L.

doi:10.1525/aa.1975.77.3.02a00030

Cited by 248 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Population density in a given landscape is a pathdependent function of human arrival time and the duration [29] and rate of population growth (including migration), and this in part is related to the productivity of native ecosystems [7,63,66]. In agricultural systems, humans tend to use land more intensely as population densities increase, enhancing the productivity of land both by increasing labour inputs and by adopting more labour-intensive and labour-substituting technologies, the increased productivity in turn supporting further population growth [67][68][69][70][71]. For example, increases in population density may push low-density populations subsisting on shifting cultivation or extensive grazing into continuous cultivation, causing seminatural anthromes to become croplands, then drive the increasing use of fertilizers and irrigation within croplands, and ultimately cause croplands to shift to densely settled anthromes with declining agricultural areas (figure 1; [7,62,64,[67][68][69][70]72,73]).…”

Section: (A) Global Variation Across the Biomes And Anthromesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In agricultural systems, humans tend to use land more intensely as population densities increase, enhancing the productivity of land both by increasing labour inputs and by adopting more labour-intensive and labour-substituting technologies, the increased productivity in turn supporting further population growth [67][68][69][70][71]. For example, increases in population density may push low-density populations subsisting on shifting cultivation or extensive grazing into continuous cultivation, causing seminatural anthromes to become croplands, then drive the increasing use of fertilizers and irrigation within croplands, and ultimately cause croplands to shift to densely settled anthromes with declining agricultural areas (figure 1; [7,62,64,[67][68][69][70]72,73]). In industrial human systems, traded commodities replace local production in sustaining most human populations, making technological advances in agroecosystem engineering and trade, including mechanization, synthetic fertilizers and fossil-fuelled global transport, ever more important as global drivers of land-use change and intensification [33,62,74].…”

Section: (A) Global Variation Across the Biomes And Anthromesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere

Ellis

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

685

398

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Human populations and their use of land have transformed most of the terrestrial biosphere into anthropogenic biomes (anthromes), causing a variety of novel ecological patterns and processes to emerge. To assess whether human populations and their use of land have directly altered the terrestrial biosphere sufficiently to indicate that the Earth system has entered a new geological epoch, spatially explicit global estimates of human populations and their use of land were analysed across the Holocene for their potential to induce irreversible novel transformation of the terrestrial biosphere. Human alteration of the terrestrial biosphere has been significant for more than 8000 years. However, only in the past century has the majority of the terrestrial biosphere been transformed into intensively used anthromes with predominantly novel anthropogenic ecological processes. At present, even were human populations to decline substantially or use of land become far more efficient, the current global extent, duration, type and intensity of human transformation of ecosystems have already irreversibly altered the terrestrial biosphere at levels sufficient to leave an unambiguous geological record differing substantially from that of the Holocene or any prior epoch. It remains to be seen whether the anthropogenic biosphere will be sustained and continue to evolve.

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Section: (A) Global Variation Across the Biomes And Anthromesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (A) Global Variation Across the Biomes And Anthromesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere

Ellis

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

685

398

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“…However, both theoretical and empirical work has shown that increased population density cannot be assumed to lead to innovation (5,(46)(47)(48), let alone innovation of a complexity-increasing kind. We have already outlined one reason for the failure to establish a robust link between increased population density and innovation: Innovation is only one of several options available to people to relieve subsistence stress.…”

Section: Theoretical Analysis Of the Models Of Henrich And Powell Et Almentioning

confidence: 99%

Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity

Vaesen

Collard

Cosgrove

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

133

112

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Demography is increasingly being invoked to account for features of the archaeological record, such as the technological conservatism of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, and cultural loss in Holocene Tasmania , which appear to demonstrate that population size is the crucial determinant of cultural complexity. Here, we show that these models fail in two important respects. First, they only support a relationship between demography and culture in implausible conditions. Second, their predictions conflict with the available archaeological and ethnographic evidence. We conclude that new theoretical and empirical research is required to identify the factors that drove the changes in cultural complexity that are documented by the archaeological record.

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“…The initial population size, age distribution and location were the same for each run. It has been shown (Weiss, 1973;Coale, 1974;Cowgill, 1975;Frejka, 1973) that minor variations in the absolute numbers of the founding population have virtually no effect on the ultimate population level after hundreds or thousands of years have elapsed. The operation of the various demographic forces over time usually produces similar results whether the initial population was 500, 700, etc.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peopling of the Arctic: A Computer Simulation

Bottino¹

1987

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. The research described in this paper involved the development of a computer program designed to simulate population growth and migration patterns among hunter-gatherers, especially with respect to the Arctic. The program, which handles up to 200 discreet geographical locations, each with its own particular demographic and environmental characteristics, begins with an initial population and its vital statistics and simulates the events that occur through time. The fertility and mortality rates used in the simulations were those of modem and former Eskimo populations and other anthropological populations. The program was run under five different conditions. Condition 1 included high mortality and fertility rates and no female infanticide and resulted in extinction with little population dispersion. Condition 2, a situation of low mortality and high fertility with no infanticide, resulted in the occupation of nearly the entire Arctic in 1300 years. Condition 3 included the same mortality and fertility rates as condition 2, with the incorporation of a 30% rate of female infanticide. Under this condition, the population declined very slowly, while migration proceeded to some extent. Condition 4 represented a situation of very high fertility and mortality with 30% female infanticide and resulted in relatively rapid growth and migration rates. Condition 5, which incorporated the same high fertility and infanticide rates as condition 4 and lower mortality rates, produced very rapid population growth and migration. Anthropologists have long been concerned with the history of population movements and the relationships between population and environment. Methods developed to describe presentday human populations have been found useful in the description and analysis of prehistoric populations and communities of anthropological interest living in various parts of the world today (Weiss, 1973(Weiss, ,1975Zubrow, 1975;Storey, 1984). These methods provide quantitative descriptions of populations and of the processes that affect their size and composition. Acsadi and Nemeskeri (1970), Moore et al. (1975) and Hassan (1981) provide an extensive discussion of the history of paleodemographic research and analyses of therelationship between anthropology and demography. In order to study the various effects of disease, accidents, social mortality (infanticide, invalicide, etc.) and the other agents of natural selection in general, it is necessary to describe populations in terms of their rates of fertility, mortality and migration. These rates may be considered as discreet events that occur during the life cycle of individuals, as well as processes that apply to entire populations (Schrire and Steiger, 1974; Chapman, 1980).The development of modem high-speed computers has allowed for the incorporation of descriptive and analytic demographic methods into computer programs designed to simulate events that occur over time in actual populations (Arriaga et al., 1976). These computer programs are important because they can ...

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On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes¹

Cited by 248 publications

References 43 publications

Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere

Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere

Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity

Peopling of the Arctic: A Computer Simulation

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On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes1

Cited by 248 publications

References 43 publications

Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere

Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere

Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity

Peopling of the Arctic: A Computer Simulation

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On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes¹