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22 results

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  • 3 - Hunter-Gatherer Demography
  • Jennifer C. French, University of Liverpool
  • Book: Palaeolithic Europe
  • Published online: 27 October 2021
  • Print publication: 09 December 2021, pp 49-84
  • View extract

    Summary

    Demographic data from recent hunter-gatherers are frequently used to supplement the database available for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Through the lens of Human Behaviour Ecology, Chapter 3 analyses demographic data from recent foragers, identifies common population controls and constraints and uses these to develop some expectations for Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers.

Palaeolithic Europe
  • Palaeolithic Europe
  • A Demographic and Social Prehistory
  • Jennifer C. French
  • Published online: 27 October 2021
  • Print publication: 09 December 2021
  • View description
    In this book, Jennifer French presents a new synthesis of the archaeological, palaeoanthropological, and palaeogenetic records of the European Palaeolithic, adopting a unique demographic perspective on these first two-million years of European prehistory. Unlike prevailing narratives of demographic stasis, she emphasises the dynamism of Palaeolithic populations of both our evolutionary ancestors and members of our own species across four demographic stages, within a context of substantial Pleistocene climatic changes. Integrating evolutionary theory with a socially oriented approach to the Palaeolithic, French bridges biological and cultural factors, with a focus on women and children as the drivers of population change. She shows how, within the physiological constraints on fertility and mortality, social relationships provide the key to enduring demographic success. Through its demographic focus, French combines a 'big picture' perspective on human evolution with careful analysis of the day-to-day realities of European Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities—their families, their children, and their lives.

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