The critical discussion to existing population policy from the view-point of anthropological research
Shinozaki, N.
Jinko Mondai Kenkyu 138: 1-12
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0387-2793 PMID: 12261516 Document Number: 521448
The interests of anthropologists and ecologists have been dovetailing in the recent past. Until then, biologists, sociologists, and economists researched population problems; statisticians compiled tables of data. But many population problems are cultural rather than statistical. Anthropological data has shown high natality and high mortality in preindustrial stages; high natality and low mortality in postindustrial society; and, low natality and low mortality in the post-postindustrial society. In the last stage, a stable rate of population growth is envisioned. Hunting and gathering people don't always live in a miserable condition and may be well nourished and healthy. Formal demographers fail to take into consideration the cultural factors which influence the birth rate, e.g., postpartum taboo, amenorrhea, gerontocratic system, and sexual behavior. Many anthropologists find population theories formed as a framework after the industrial revolution demographers to be nonsense. Population research has been indulged as population quantity problems and has omitted the problems of population quality, neglecting important cultural factors. (Author's Modified)