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Areal Decrease, Density Increase, and Circumscription: A Mathematical Note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert Bates Graber
Robert Bates Graber*
Affiliation:
Division of Social Science, Northeast Missouri State University, Kirksville, MO 63501
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Abstract

Population density increases whenever a population grows more rapidly, or shrinks more slowly, than the area it inhabits; areal contraction therefore accelerates density increase. This consideration not only reinforces Dickson's (1987) suggestion that circumscription by anthropogenic environmental destruction contributed to the rise of some early states; it also implies that rate of density increase should be distinguished, as a motor of sociocultural evolution, from density itself. In light of this distinction the rise of the state in southwestern Iran, and occasional instances of high density among nonstate societies, are not necessarily inconsistent with population-pressure theories.

Résumé

Résumé

La densidad deuna población aumenta cuando la población crece más rápidamente o disminuye más lentamente que el área que ésta habita; por consiguiente, la contracción del área accelera el aumento de la densidad poblacional. Esta teoría no sólo respalda la sugerencia de Dickson (1987), quien sostiene que la circunscripción mediante la destrucción antropogénica del ambiente contribuyó al florecimiento de algunos estados de la antigüedad; la teoría también implica que conviene distinguir entre la tasa del aumento de la densidad poblacional, como motor de la evolución sociocultural, y la densidad como tal. A la luz de esta distinción, el florecimiento del estado en el suroeste de Irán, y los casos de alta densidad entre algunas sociedades pre-estatales, no están necesariamente en desacuerdo con las teorías que acentúan la importancia de la presión de la poblacion (population pressure theories).

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , July 1990 , pp. 546 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1990 

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References

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