Anthropological Demography: Toward a New Synthesis

Edited by David I. Kertzer and Tom Fricke

Although in its early years anthropology often used demographic research and showed interest in demographic issues, anthropology and demography have more recently grown to distrust each other's guiding assumptions and methods. Demographers have stressed universal causal models and standardized survey methods, while sociocultural anthropologists have increasingly focused on the uniqueness of different peoples and their cultures.

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 07/15/1997

ISBN: 0226431959

Available at

Full summary

Showing that the two disciplines have much to offer each other, this book bridges the demography/anthropology divide. The editors begin the volume with an in-depth historical account of the relations between the fields. Eminent contributors from both disciplines then examine the major issues and controversies in anthropological demography, including the demographic implications of differing family and kinship systems; the influence of new developments in cultural, gender, and identity theory on population study; the limits of quantitative approaches in demographic study; and demographers' views of the limits of anthropological methods.

Chapter Contents

Acknowledgments

  1. Toward an Anthropological Demography
    David I. Kertzer, Tom Fricke.

  2. Kinship Systems and Demographic Regimes
    Monica Das Gupta

  3. Family Systems and Demographic Processes
    G. William Skinner

  4. Reproduction in Anthropology and Demography
    Nicholas Townsend

  5. Similarities and Differences: Anthropological and Demographic Perspectives on Gender
    Nancy E. Riley

  6. Population and Identity