Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T12:40:07.194Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stable Populations and Skeletal Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lisa Sattenspiel  and
Henry Harpending
Lisa Sattenspiel
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Henry Harpending
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A common procedure in paleodemography is to use mean skeletal age to estimate the expectation of life at birth in a population. This paper shows that skeletal age and expectation of life at birth are not equivalent unless the population is stationary. This assumption is not justified for most real populations. We show that mean skeletal age is approximately equivalent to the reciprocal of the birth rate and is not correlated with the death rate. Thus, the practice of inferring changes in life span and death rates from changes in mean age at death is not reliable and most conclusions of paleodemographic studies should be revised. On the other hand, skeletal age may provide high-quality information about fertility in archaeological populations. Several published paleodemographic studies are reinterpreted in light of the model presented.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1983 , pp. 489 - 498
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Acsadi, G., and Nemeskeri, J. 1970 History of Human Life Span and Mortality. Akademiai Kiado, Budapest.Google Scholar
Adams, W. Y. 1968 Settlement Patterns in Microcosm. In Settlement Archaeology, edited by Chang, K. C., pp. 174–207. National Press Books, Palo Alto, Calif.Google Scholar
Ammerman, Albert J., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., and Wagener, Diane K. 1976 Toward the Estimation of Population Growth in Old World Prehistory. In Demographic Anthropology: Quantitative Approaches, edited by Zubrow, E., pp. 27–61. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Angel, J. Lawrence 1971 The People of Lerna. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Angel, J. Lawrence 1972 Ecology and Population in the Eastern Mediterranean. World Archaeology 4:87–105.Google Scholar
Bennett, Kenneth A. 1973 On the Estimation of Some Demographic Characteristics on a Prehistoric Population from the American Southwest. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 39:223–232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Binford, Lewis R. 1968 Post-Pleistocene Adaptations. In New Perspectives in Archaeology, edited by Binford, S. R. and Binford, L. R., pp. 313–342. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Black, Francis L. 1966 Measles Endemicity in Insular Populations: Critical Community Size and its Evolutionary Implication. Journal of Theoretical Biology 11:207–211.Google Scholar
Coale, Ansley J. 1972 The Growth and Structure of Human Populations. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J. Google Scholar
Coale, Ansley J., and Demeny, Paul 1966 Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J. Google Scholar
Cockburn, T. Aidan 1971 Infectious Diseases in Ancient Populations. Current Anthropology 12:45–62.Google Scholar
Cohen, Mark Nathan 1977 The Food Crisis in Prehistory. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1975 Population Pressure as a Non-explanation. In Population Studies in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology: A Symposium, edited by Swedlund, Alan C., pp. 127–131. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 30. Google Scholar
Dumond, D. E. 1975 The Limitation of Human Population: A Natural History. Science 187:713–721.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Marcus S. 1953 Some Vital Statistics Based on Skeletal Material. Human Biology 25:3–12.Google ScholarPubMed
Gould, K. L., Herrman, K. L., and White, J. J. 1971 The Epidemiology of Measles in the U. S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. American Journal of Public Health 61:1602–1614.Google Scholar
Green, Sheryl, Green, Stanton, and Armelagos, George J. 1974 Settlement and Mortality of the Christian Site (1050 A. D. -1300 A. D. ) of Meinarti (Sudan). Journal of Human Evolution 3:297–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Handwerker, W. Perm 1983 The First Demographic Transition: An Analysis of Subsistence Choices and Reproductive Consequences. American Anthropologist, in Press.Google Scholar
Harpending, Henry, and Wandsnider, Luann 1982 Population Structures of Ghanzi and Ngamiland !Kung. In Current Developments in Anthropological Genetics, vol. 2, edited by Crawford, M. H. and Mielke, J. H., pp. 29–50. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hassan, Fekri A. 1973 On Methods of Population Growth During the Neolithic. Current Anthropology 14:535–542.Google Scholar
Hassan, Fekri A. 1975 Determination of the Size, Density and Growth Rate of Hunting-Gathering Populations. In Population, Ecology and Social Evolution, edited by Polgar, S., pp. 27–52. Mouton, The Hague.Google Scholar
Hassan, Fekri A. 1981 Demographic Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hole, Frank, Flannery, Kent V., and Neely, James A. 1971 Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain (excerpts). In Prehistoric Agriculture, edited by Stuart, Streuver, pp. 252–312. Natural History Press, Garden City, N. Y. Google Scholar
Howell, Nancy 1975 The Population of the Dobe Area IKung. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Keyfitz, Nathan 1977 Applied Mathematical Demography. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Keyfitz, Nathan, and Flieger, Wilhelm 1971 Population. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Lee, Richard B. 1972 Population Growth and the Beginnings of Sedentary Life Among the !Kung Bushmen. In Population Growth: Anthropological Implications, edited by Brian, Spooner, pp. 329–342. MIT Press, Cambrdige, Mass.Google Scholar
Moore, James A., Swedlund, Alan C., and Armelagos, George J. 1975 The Use of Life Tables in Paleodemography. In Population Studies in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology: A Symposium, edited by Swedlund, Alan C., pp. 57–70. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, 30.Google Scholar
Neel, James V., Centerwall, Willard R., Chagnon, Napoleon A., and Casey, Helen L. 1970 Notes on the Effect of Measles and Measles Vaccine in a Virgin-soil Population of South American Indians. American Journal of Epidemiology 91:418–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, William 1975 A Demographer's View of Prehistoric Demography. Current Anthropology 16:227–245.Google Scholar
Polgar, Steven 1972 Population History and Population Policies from an Anthropological Perspective. Current Anthropology 13:203-211.Google Scholar
Swedlund, Alan C, and Armelagos, George J. 1976 Demographic Anthropology. William C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa.Google Scholar
Weiss, Kenneth M. 1973 Demographic Models for Anthropology. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 27. Google Scholar
Weiss, K. M., and Smouse, P. E. 1976 The Demographic Stability of Small Human Populations. In The Demographic Evolution of Human Populations, edited by Ward, R. H. and Weiss, K. M., pp. 59–74. Academic Press, New York. Google Scholar