Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Foreword -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: the framework of studying human population dynamics -- The structure of this volume -- The contemporary and future dynamics of human populations -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 2 Demographic perspectives on human population dynamics -- Introduction -- Some demographic fundamentals -- Formal demographic models of population change -- Population dynamics in the short to medium term -- Population momentum -- Population dynamics in the long term -- The theory of demographic transition -- Conclusion -- References -- 3 The growing concentration of world population from 1950 to 2050 -- Introduction -- Rapid world population growth -- Populations of states -- Most population growth in LDCs -- Increasing demographic diversity of LDCs -- Changing continental balance in population distribution -- Subtly changing boundaries of the inhabited area -- Population redistribution and regional concentration -- Massive acceleration in the urban population -- Unprecedented growth of mega-cities -- Growing environmental impacts of mega-cities -- Conclusion -- References -- 4 Population, community and society in peasant societies -- Definitions -- The intrinsic properties of the individual and the emergent properties of interaction -- Genes and society in the transition between foraging and peasant farming -- Population growth -- Inheritance -- The household, production and inter-household relationships in the community -- External relations -- Conclusion -- References -- 5 From genetic variation to population dynamics: insights into the biological understanding of humans -- The extent of human biological variation -- Variation at the molecular level -- 1 The biological meaning of SNP variation.

2 The amount of variation in humans. -- 3 The (geographic) structure of the variation. -- Variation and divergence: what makes a human human? -- Genetics and the evolutionary process -- Impact of evolutionary forces -- Mutation -- Selection -- 1 How has selection shaped human evolution? -- 2 How can one measure the strength of selection acting on the frequency of characteristics in a group? -- Genetic drift -- Migration -- Genome versus population understanding -- Gene trees and the ethnogenesis process -- References -- 6 Social institutions and demographic regimes in non-industrial societies: a comparative approach -- The Malthusian model -- Demographic homeostasis in West European peasant society -- The nuptiality valve in the English case before the mid-nineteenth century -- Some demographic correlates of joint household formation systems -- The traditional Chinese household formation system and its demographic correlates -- West Africa -- Conclusion -- References -- 7 The dynamics of child survival -- Introduction -- Populations with high child mortality -- The decline of infant and child mortality -- Populations with low child mortality -- Early survival and later morbidity -- Seasonality -- Summary -- References -- 8 Genetic structure of south Indian caste populations: a confluence of biology and culture -- Methods -- Study populations -- Laboratory and statistical methods -- Results -- Discussion -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Appendix 8.1 -- Laboratory methods -- Statistical methods -- 9 Fertility, mortality and migration transitions in association with socioeconomic modernisation among highland minority… -- Introduction -- Determinants of primary population variables -- Traditional Lua' and Hmong models -- Lua' model - conscientious conservationism -- Hmong model: exploitation of resources on an expanding frontier.

Demographic differences associated with the different models -- Major external changes affecting population dynamics -- Lua' responses to population growth -- Hmong responses to population growth -- Effects of exogenous changes on population and ethnic boundaries -- Consequences for population dynamics of ethnic labelling of minorities by the dominant majority -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 10 Ecology, homeostasis and survival in human population dynamics -- Introduction -- Population change and homeostasis -- Human demography and animal population ecology -- Expected ranges for demographic variables -- Closed ecosystems and small remote places -- Historical demography as population ecology -- The case of historical Java -- Conclusion -- References -- Glossary -- Index.