Anthropological Demography: Toward a New Synthesis

The chapters in this volume are substantially revised versions of papers originally presented at the Brown University Conference on Anthropological Demography November 3-5 1994.... This volume is motivated by a sense that the time is ripe for a reconsideration and renewal of past achievements together with the development of a new synthesis in the relationship between anthropology and demography.... The contributions take various and not always reconcilable points of view. The opening chapters for example illustrate that the foundations of demographic engagement with anthropology in issues of kinship social organization and the formation of domestic groups are as alive and valid today as in the past. Subsequent chapters expand on standard demographic concepts by demonstrating the role of anthropology in rethinking their cross-cultural validity. Some chapters more critically evaluate the relationship between demography and anthropology with reference to their epistemological roots while others apply specific frameworks from the general anthropological and theoretical literature to demographic issues. (EXCERPT)