Population Center Research Approaches: Historical Demography

About Historical Demography

The bulk of demographic research has been concerned with current conditions and extrapolation into the future. Many important theoretical problems require greater time depth. Family reconstitution from parish records was a major innovation in attaining time depth on complex populations. Archaeologists have made strides in understanding the demography of preliterate populations and the complementary roles of population dynamics and technology in the development of the human species. One major outcome of such research is a renewed assessment of the role of introduced disease as a factor in European domination of the New World and Oceania. Another is the detailed evaluation of ecological transformations wrought by advancing human populations from the Paleolithic onward.

Historical demography conducted by BPC affiliates includes:

• Time series analysis of effects of weather and prices on demographic dynamics
• Inverse Projection
• Family Reconstitution and Kinship Modeling
• The Demography and Health Status of Past Populations (paleodemography)
• The Ecological Relations of Past Populations (settlement demography)