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Culture, Biology, and Anthropological Demography

Culture, Biology, and Anthropological Demography

Culture, Biology, and Anthropological Demography

Author:
Eric Abella Roth, University of Victoria, British Columbia
Published:
August 2004
Availability:
Available
Format:
Hardback
ISBN:
9780521809054

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    Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology. Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation.

    • Suitable for upper-level undergraduate and/or graduate classes in anthropology and demography
    • Concise overview of both anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology
    • Case studies dealing with diverse topics of interest to both anthropologists and demographers, e.g. , contemporary Chinese family adoption, sexual behavior and HIV/AIDS, cross-cultural patterns of mating and parental investment

    Reviews & endorsements

    '… Roth's undertaking is to be applauded … Roth draws on an exceptionally wide collection of materials to support his arguments … His first-hand account of how he developed this research focus will be particularly useful for those researchers engaged in or considering such cross-disciplinary work.' Population Studies

    See more reviews

    Product details

    August 2004
    Hardback
    9780521809054
    232 pages
    236 × 156 × 17 mm
    0.423kg
    19 b/w illus. 26 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Part I. Anthropological Demography and Human Ecological Behavioural Ecology:
    • 1. Two solitudes
    • 2. Why bother?
    • 3. Anthropological demography: culture, not biology
    • 4. Human evolutionary ecology: biology, not culture
    • 5. Discussion: cultural and biological reductionism
    • Part II. Reconciling Anthropological Demography and Human Evolutionary Ecology:
    • 6. Common ground
    • 7. Demographic strategies
    • 8. Reproductive interests: social interactions, life effort and demographic strategies: a Rendille example
    • 9. Sepaade as male mating effort
    • 10. Rendille primogeniture as a parenting strategy
    • 11. Summary: demographic strategies as links between culture and biology
    • Part III. Mating Effort and Demographic Strategies:
    • 12. Mating effort as demographic strategies
    • 13. Cross-cultural mating strategies: polygyny and bridewealth, monogamy and dowry
    • 14. Bridewealth and the matter of choice
    • 15. Demographic and cultural change: values and morals
    • 16. The end of the sepaade tradition: behavioral tracking and moral change
    • Part IV. Demographic Strategies as Parenting Effort:
    • 17. Parenting effort and the theory of allocation
    • 18. The Trivers-Willard model and parenting strategies
    • 19. Parity-specific parental strategies: the case of primogeniture
    • 20. Local resource competition model
    • 21. Infanticide and child abandonment: accentuating the negative
    • 22. Adoption in modern China: stressing the positive
    • 23. Summary: culture and biology in parental effort
    • Part V. Future Research Directions:
    • 24. The central place of sex in anthropology and evolution
    • 25. Male sexuality, education and high risk behavior
    • 26. Final ground: demographic transitions
    • Part VI. References Cited.
      Author
    • Eric Abella Roth , University of Victoria, British Columbia

      Eric Abella Roth is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, and an Affiliate, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington-Seattle. He has conducted demographic anthropological fieldwork in the Canadian Subarctic, the Sudan and northern Kenya. He has published in various journals, including American Anthropology, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Human Biology, Human Ecology, Journal of Anthropological Research, and Social Sciences and Medicine. He is co-editor of the text, African Pastoralist Systems: An Integrated Approach (1994, Lynne Rienner).