Prehistoric demography in a time of globalization

Abstract

The signal of a relatively abrupt increase, in the immature proportion of skeleton is observed in cemeteries during the foraging-farming transition. This signal is interpreted as the signature of a major demographic shift in human history, now known as the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). How can population growth be explained?' Was population increase gradual or abrupt? Was it related to the stability in food provisioning due to building and maintaining storage facilities? Or was it just annual cultivation and harvesting under favorable climatic conditions that allowed the number of humans to increase? The volume presented here is divided into four parts. Part 1 concerns the demographic and economic aspects of the NDT. Part 2 focuses on settlement and village practices. The relatively rapid growth of human populations during the NDT radically transformed settlement behaviour. In this part, we consider the varied implications of the NDT for settlement and village practices at both regional and local or intra-village scales. Part 3 is concerned with community size and social organization. The growth of larger communities gave rise to unprecedented stresses within these expanding villages, which in turn stimulated the appearance of novel social practices and institutions. This part is concerned with the transformations of human social life that resulted from the NDT. Part 4 focuses on population growth and health. Can the signal of a return to homeostatic demographic equilibrium be detected, and what would have been its tempo during the NDT? Was the signal the same in the different geographical centres of agricultural innovation and expansion? Did the NDT produce a decline or an improvement in the living conditions of early farmers? The time has come to reflect upon the multiple consequences of that qualitative leap in human demographic history. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008.