The demographic history of the native peoples of North America: A selective bibliography

S. Ryan Johansson

43 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology

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Indigenous Cultures and History Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights Indigenous Health and Education

Abstract

Before contact with Europeans had begun, the native peoples of North America were varied in their demographic characteristics; nevertheless, available evidence indicates that, on an average, their life-expectancy-at-birth values fell into the same low ranges typical for other groups at similar levels of technological development. While the total population at contact is still unknown, political and cultural biases have generally forced estimates into artificially high or low ranges. There is general agreement that the shock of contact with invading Europeans led to substantial reductions among most aboriginal populations, but in North America some groups were much less disrupted than others. Many original populations disappeared altogether, but whether or not their demise was primarily a function of short-run, rapid disruption caused by disease and/or warfare, or a slower process spread out over several generations involving assimilation in its various forms, remains uncertain. With the establishment of the reservation system in the 19th century a basis was provided for continued demographic and cultural survival. By the early 20th century most reservation populations were beginning a demographic transition based on declining death rates and high fertility. For several generations rapid growth has continued. As urbanization increases recent fertility declines are expected to accelerate even further. Meanwhile the rapid urbanization of the surviving native peoples poses a real threat to their cultural distinctiveness. Finally, all phases of native American demographic history are characterized by defective and inadequate data which makes straightforward description or analysis perilous.

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References

1985Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A quantitative approach 1973The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 1973Demographic Models for Anthropology 1966An Appraisal of Techniques with a New Hemispheric Estimate 1976Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal Depopulation in America 1977the ecological basis for Aztec sacrifice 1 1980Palaeopathology: An American Account 1976The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization

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1992Sociological Perspectives on American Indians 1994Paleodemography: “Not quite dead”1994In the wake of Columbus: Native population biology in the postcontact Americas 1988Surviving Conquest: The Maya of Guatemala in Historical Perspective 1991American Indian Population Recovery following Smallpox Epidemics 1985Demographic Change in Northwestern New Spain

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