Demography of the Dobe! Kung

by Howell,Nancy

• ISBN13: 9780202306490
• ISBN10: 0202306496
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-02-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

First published in 1979, this is a classic study of the population of the Bushmen of the Kalahari Deselt of Botswana. Using methods that are simple and fully illustrated, the author presents empirical descriptions of the fertility, mortality, and marriage patterns of the famous !Kung hunter-gatherers.

Author Biography

Nancy Howell is Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
An Overview of the Population Study of a Hunting and Gathering People
The !Kung as an ``Ethnographic Analogy'': Problems of Valid Generalization	3	(3)
The Dobe Area	6	(3)
The Duration of the !Kung Adaptation: Refugees or Aborigines?	9	(7)
The Status of the !Kung in the 1960s	16	(1)
The Definition of the Population of the Dobe Area !Kung	17	(7)
Age Estimation and Age Structure
Demographic Techniques of Assessment and Correction of Age Estimates	24	(17)
Age Structure of the Population	41	(7)
Causes of Sickness and Death
Sanitary Conditions and Customs That Affect Mortality	48	(3)
Social Costs of Morbidity and Mortality	51	(3)
Occupational Hazards of the Hunting and Gathering Way of Life	54	(5)
Interpersonal Violence, Homicide, and Suicide	59	(3)
Infectious and Communicable Diseases	62	(4)
Degenerative Disease	66	(2)
Causes of Death in Comparative Perspective	68	(5)
The Measurement of Mortality
The Conceptual Framework of Life-Table Analysis	73	(2)
Model Life Tables	75	(5)
!Kung Mortality	80	(20)
Simulating Mortality
The Universe of !Kung-like Populations	100	(1)
Simulating !Kung-like Populations	101	(3)
Life-Table Indicators of Mortality	104	(10)
AMBUSH Perspectives on Assessment of the !Kung Mortality Data	114	(8)
An Overview of !Kung Women's Fertility: Completed Reproductive Careers
The Measurement of Fertility	122	(1)
Production of Live Births	123	(5)
Entrance into the Childbearing Population: Age at First Birth	128	(5)
Birth Intervals and Their Evidence for Fertility Limitation	133	(2)
Causes of Low Parity	135	(3)
Fertility Performance, 1963--1973
Age Patterns of Current Fertility	138	(7)
Numbers of Children Born Per Woman	145	(1)
The Length of Birth Intervals	146	(5)
Summary of Fertility Performance, 1963--1973	151	(2)
!Kung Fertility Performance in Comparative Perspective
Comparison Populations	153	(3)
Parity Progression Ratios	156	(2)
Age-Specific Marital Fertility Rates and Patterns	158	(2)
Declining Fertility with Age	160	(2)
Duration of the Reproductive Span and the Length of Birth Intervals	162	(3)
The !Kung and the Hutterites: Accounting for the Differences	165	(2)
Primary and Secondary Sterility: Normal and Pathological Causes
Primary Sterility	167	(14)
Secondary Sterility	181	(4)
The Costs of Veneral Disease to the !Kung	185	(5)
Fatness and Fertility
Frisch's Critical Fatness Hypothesis	190	(2)
Application to the !Kung	192	(18)
The Status of the Critical Fatness Hypothesis	210	(3)
Population Size, Growth Rates, and the Age Distribution: Simulations of Fertility and Mortality
Population Growth in the !Kung Population	213	(3)
AMBUSH Simulations of Population Size and Growth	216	(7)
Assessing Errors in Age Estimation	223	(2)
Inadequacies of This Simple Simulation	225	(3)
Marriage and Remarriage Among the !Kung
Prohibited Spouses	228	(1)
Preferential Criteria for Selection of Spouses, and the ``Marriage Market''	229	(2)
Marital and Non-Marital Sexual Behavior	231	(1)
Legitimacy and Custody of Children	232	(1)
Marital Status of Adults in 1968	233	(14)
The ``Two-Sex Problem'' in Marriage	247	(1)
Marriage Success Rates for Men and Women	248	(4)
Sources of Recent Change in Marriage	252	(1)
Fertility Performance of !Kung Men
Growth and Development of !Kung Men	253	(5)
Age at First Marriage	258	(3)
Men's Age-Specific Fertility Rates	261	(4)
Men's Fertility by Age and Age of Wife	265	(2)
Differential Success	267	(2)
Men's Parity Distributions	269	(4)
Population Growth as Measured Through the Male Generation	273	(5)
The Simulation of Fertility Within Marriage
The AMBUSH Method for Generating Marriage	278	(3)
The AMBUSH Method for Generating Births for Marriages	281	(5)
Viability of the Stimulated Populations	286	(1)
Age Distribution	286	(2)
Marital Status in the Simulated Populations	288	(3)
Fertility Performance in the Stimulated Populations	291	(8)
Parity of Newborns and Generational Growth	299	(4)
A Review and Overview of the Simulations	303	(3)
Social Structural Implications of Demographic Parameters: Kinship Ties and Kinship Groups
The Cultural Definitions of Kinship	306	(1)
Variability in Kin Ties	307	(15)
The Total Inventory of Kin	322	(2)
Households and Kinship Groups	324	(4)
Number of Simultaneously Living Generations	328	(1)
Kinship Relations as Resources	329	(1)
The Early Social Prominence of Women	329	(1)
Kinship and Demography: Review and Overview	330	(4)
Genetic Implications of !Kung Demography
The Demographic Facts of !Kung Women's Lives	334	(4)
Demographic Facts of Genetic Transmission: Men's Rates	338	(2)
The Opportunity for Natural Selection	340	(6)
Microevolution on the Allelic Level	346	(2)
The Distribution of Number of Allelic Copies Transmitted per Parent	348	(2)
Changes in the Allelic Proportions per Generation: Microevolution	350	(5)
Population Size, Isolation, and Random Drift	355	(3)
Implications of !Kung Demography for Genetic Transmission: Review and Overview	358	(4)
History and Future of the Dobe !Kung Population
Return to Dobe	362	(9)
Population Trends: 1968---2000	371	(1)
Dobe in the 1970s	372	(3)
Dobe in the 1980s	375	(1)
Dobe in the 1990s	376	(1)
Summary of Trends in Population Parameters over Time	377	(6)
References	383	(14)
Index	397