Anthropological Demography

Catalog description

Analysis of demographic studies in traditional and very small populations. ANTH 408 Anthropological Demography (3)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course examines population-related problems from an anthropological perspective. Special emphasis is placed on ecological and economic approaches to the study of population dynamics in small-scale, preindustrial societies. This is an advanced undergraduate course that builds upon introductory anthropology and leads the student into more difficult demographic problems that are linked with economics, politics, religion and other cultural factors that shape population and population change. While the course is designed to introduce any of the basic analytical methods of demography, attention is focused primarily on fundamental theoretical issues concerning population growth, resources, fertility, mortality, age structure, and household demography in traditional societies. Data is drawn from ethnographic studies of living populations, from historical demography, and from paleodemography (the reconstruction of population patterns from skeletal samples). There will be three take-home problem sets. These will be a mixture of short essay questions and simple numerical exercises that can be solved on a pocket calculator or a spreadsheet. This course fulfills a 3 credit 400-level requirement for the Anthropology major and minor.