Matt Grove
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264522
- eISBN:
- 9780191734724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264522.003.0019
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
This chapter aims to summarize the results of recent research producing estimates of hominin range areas, population sizes, and land use patterns based on archaeological data. Estimates of such ...
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This chapter aims to summarize the results of recent research producing estimates of hominin range areas, population sizes, and land use patterns based on archaeological data. Estimates of such variables are essential to any geographic or demographic discussion of human evolution, yet at present no generally applicable quantitative method is available to link them to the often abundant data of the archaeological record. Such data offer a unique window onto the patterns of adaptation characterizing prehistoric human populations, and developing a generic method to describe trajectories of change will allow researchers to compare range areas, population sizes and land use patterns between different regions and periods from throughout the vast spatio-temporal range of human evolution. The discussion gives particular emphasis to estimating a trajectory of group size through time from shortly after 2 million years ago until approximately 14,000 years ago.Less
This chapter aims to summarize the results of recent research producing estimates of hominin range areas, population sizes, and land use patterns based on archaeological data. Estimates of such variables are essential to any geographic or demographic discussion of human evolution, yet at present no generally applicable quantitative method is available to link them to the often abundant data of the archaeological record. Such data offer a unique window onto the patterns of adaptation characterizing prehistoric human populations, and developing a generic method to describe trajectories of change will allow researchers to compare range areas, population sizes and land use patterns between different regions and periods from throughout the vast spatio-temporal range of human evolution. The discussion gives particular emphasis to estimating a trajectory of group size through time from shortly after 2 million years ago until approximately 14,000 years ago.
Laurence D. Muller
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199754229
- eISBN:
- 9780199896714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754229.003.0011
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
Late life was first detected in human populations, despite the very late occurrence of late life in humans. Recent data from supercentenarians provide strong evidence of a late-life mortality rate ...
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Late life was first detected in human populations, despite the very late occurrence of late life in humans. Recent data from supercentenarians provide strong evidence of a late-life mortality rate plateau in human populations. An important puzzle is why human populations reach late life so late. Two explanations are conceivable, and not necessarily incompatible with each other: (i) a generally increased mortality level under evolutionarily novel conditions due to a lack of time for age-independent beneficial substitutions to increase in frequency; (ii) a recent expansion in effective population sizes, greatly prolonging the age-range over which the effective force of natural selection declines. Regardless of its evolutionary explanation, the cessation of aging in human populations suggests new possibilities for the extension of human healthspan.Less
Late life was first detected in human populations, despite the very late occurrence of late life in humans. Recent data from supercentenarians provide strong evidence of a late-life mortality rate plateau in human populations. An important puzzle is why human populations reach late life so late. Two explanations are conceivable, and not necessarily incompatible with each other: (i) a generally increased mortality level under evolutionarily novel conditions due to a lack of time for age-independent beneficial substitutions to increase in frequency; (ii) a recent expansion in effective population sizes, greatly prolonging the age-range over which the effective force of natural selection declines. Regardless of its evolutionary explanation, the cessation of aging in human populations suggests new possibilities for the extension of human healthspan.
Eileen Crist
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226596778
- eISBN:
- 9780226596945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226596945.003.0009
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
“Welcoming Limitations” argues for shifting perspectives on carrying capacity away from the definition of the maximum number of people the planet can support toward an ecological touchstone: the ...
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“Welcoming Limitations” argues for shifting perspectives on carrying capacity away from the definition of the maximum number of people the planet can support toward an ecological touchstone: the number of people an ecologically sound food system can support. Since the industrial food system is the most destructive, revamping the food system is imperative. This has implications for human population size. In line with Paul Ehrlich and others, the chapter argues that a population of around 2 billion is a defensible goal, enabling the conservation of biodiversity, an interconnected global civilization, and the co-flourishing of humanity and biosphere. This conclusion raises the specter of "the population question," wherein even mention of overpopulation is assailed as politically insensitive. Concerns are allayed by reframing the population question, including: redefining overpopulation as a global issue and not strictly a developing world one; clarifying that population size is a significant driver of excessive consumption, and not a variable independent of overconsumption; and countering the silence surrounding overpopulation, endeavoring to promote broad agreement about the population problem through thinking about it from new angles. Reframing the population question is followed by a discussion of a human-rights framework through which population can be stabilized and slowly reduced.Less
“Welcoming Limitations” argues for shifting perspectives on carrying capacity away from the definition of the maximum number of people the planet can support toward an ecological touchstone: the number of people an ecologically sound food system can support. Since the industrial food system is the most destructive, revamping the food system is imperative. This has implications for human population size. In line with Paul Ehrlich and others, the chapter argues that a population of around 2 billion is a defensible goal, enabling the conservation of biodiversity, an interconnected global civilization, and the co-flourishing of humanity and biosphere. This conclusion raises the specter of "the population question," wherein even mention of overpopulation is assailed as politically insensitive. Concerns are allayed by reframing the population question, including: redefining overpopulation as a global issue and not strictly a developing world one; clarifying that population size is a significant driver of excessive consumption, and not a variable independent of overconsumption; and countering the silence surrounding overpopulation, endeavoring to promote broad agreement about the population problem through thinking about it from new angles. Reframing the population question is followed by a discussion of a human-rights framework through which population can be stabilized and slowly reduced.
Matthias Leu and Steven E. Hanser
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267114
- eISBN:
- 9780520948686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267114.003.0014
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the western United States have changed in quantity and configuration from a variety of causes including agriculture and human population growth since ...
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Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the western United States have changed in quantity and configuration from a variety of causes including agriculture and human population growth since Euro-American settlement. Activities sustaining human society can decrease or fragment land cover and alter ecological processes within sagebrush ecosystems. The extent of these activities, cumulatively called the human footprint, within the range of sage-grouse has not been evaluated. Using a recent human-footprint model of the western United States, a study was undertaken to evaluate human-footprint intensity: across the sage-grouse range within seven Sage-Grouse Management Zones (SMZs), across five sagebrush land-cover classes and a non-sagebrush land-cover class within SMZ, and on landscape pattern of sagebrush land cover in relation to three scenarios differing in human-footprint effect area. A landscape-pattern analysis, using a lacunarity index, or measure of sagebrush patchiness, revealed sagebrush landscapes to be multiscaled. These results support growing evidence that sage-grouse respond to environmental factors at larger scales than those currently applied in management.Less
Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the western United States have changed in quantity and configuration from a variety of causes including agriculture and human population growth since Euro-American settlement. Activities sustaining human society can decrease or fragment land cover and alter ecological processes within sagebrush ecosystems. The extent of these activities, cumulatively called the human footprint, within the range of sage-grouse has not been evaluated. Using a recent human-footprint model of the western United States, a study was undertaken to evaluate human-footprint intensity: across the sage-grouse range within seven Sage-Grouse Management Zones (SMZs), across five sagebrush land-cover classes and a non-sagebrush land-cover class within SMZ, and on landscape pattern of sagebrush land cover in relation to three scenarios differing in human-footprint effect area. A landscape-pattern analysis, using a lacunarity index, or measure of sagebrush patchiness, revealed sagebrush landscapes to be multiscaled. These results support growing evidence that sage-grouse respond to environmental factors at larger scales than those currently applied in management.
Frank H. T. Rhodes
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801478239
- eISBN:
- 9780801466212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801478239.003.0009
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Environmental Geography
This chapter examines the Earth's finitude of space and resources, noting that land areas cannot so much be changed or expanded upon as it can be reused or replaced. Although there are the ...
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This chapter examines the Earth's finitude of space and resources, noting that land areas cannot so much be changed or expanded upon as it can be reused or replaced. Although there are the possibilities of colonizing other areas of the solar system, the chapter focuses largely on the planet Earth and its own finite resources. It emphasizes the need for restraint and resourcefulness on a planet with rather daunting limits, especially in the face of the ever-growing human population. Moreover, given their population and their penchant for consumption, the human species has invariably created most of the problems that plague the Earth today. Responsible tenancy on Earth thus becomes a challenge, though not an impossible one—human knowledge is, unlike the Earth's resources, unlimited in scope.Less
This chapter examines the Earth's finitude of space and resources, noting that land areas cannot so much be changed or expanded upon as it can be reused or replaced. Although there are the possibilities of colonizing other areas of the solar system, the chapter focuses largely on the planet Earth and its own finite resources. It emphasizes the need for restraint and resourcefulness on a planet with rather daunting limits, especially in the face of the ever-growing human population. Moreover, given their population and their penchant for consumption, the human species has invariably created most of the problems that plague the Earth today. Responsible tenancy on Earth thus becomes a challenge, though not an impossible one—human knowledge is, unlike the Earth's resources, unlimited in scope.
Marianne Sommer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226347325
- eISBN:
- 9780226349879
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226349879.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter deals with Cavalli-Sforza’s early work in the development of statistical and computer techniques to create human population trees on the basis of the genetics of blood groups. The ...
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This chapter deals with Cavalli-Sforza’s early work in the development of statistical and computer techniques to create human population trees on the basis of the genetics of blood groups. The history within was now conceived to reside in the gene. At the same time, also Cavalli-Sforza synthesized knowledge from other fields such as archaeology, linguistics, and history with the genetic data to arrive at encompassing pictures of modern human population migrations. This also generated controversy, especially with exponents of cultural anthropology. Cavalli-Sforza’s team at Stanford University was a center of human population genetic research and pioneered the development of DNA analysis for the establishment of genetic kinship trees. mtDNA and Y-chromosomal markers became the most important objects for the reconstruction of modern human evolution. On the basis of that knowledge and the out-of-Africa hypothesis, diverse branches of the human origins sciences became integrated and the new view of human evolution was popularized.Less
This chapter deals with Cavalli-Sforza’s early work in the development of statistical and computer techniques to create human population trees on the basis of the genetics of blood groups. The history within was now conceived to reside in the gene. At the same time, also Cavalli-Sforza synthesized knowledge from other fields such as archaeology, linguistics, and history with the genetic data to arrive at encompassing pictures of modern human population migrations. This also generated controversy, especially with exponents of cultural anthropology. Cavalli-Sforza’s team at Stanford University was a center of human population genetic research and pioneered the development of DNA analysis for the establishment of genetic kinship trees. mtDNA and Y-chromosomal markers became the most important objects for the reconstruction of modern human evolution. On the basis of that knowledge and the out-of-Africa hypothesis, diverse branches of the human origins sciences became integrated and the new view of human evolution was popularized.
Eileen Crist
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226596778
- eISBN:
- 9780226596945
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226596945.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Abundant Earth documents the loss of biodiversity underway and lays out the drivers of this destruction. It goes beyond the litany of causes—a growing population, rising livestock numbers, expanding ...
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Abundant Earth documents the loss of biodiversity underway and lays out the drivers of this destruction. It goes beyond the litany of causes—a growing population, rising livestock numbers, expanding economies and trade, and spreading infrastructures—to ask the question: Since it is well-understood that humanity’s expansionism is irreparably diminishing life’s richness, why are we not taking the needed steps to halt our expansionism? It argues that the worldview of human supremacy—the conviction that humans are superior to all other life-forms and entitled to use them and their places—stands in the way, for it normalizes humanity’s ongoing expansion. This worldview is an obstacle to recognizing that the conjoined strategy of scaling down the human enterprise and pulling back from expanses of land and seas is the means for addressing the ecological crisis and preempting the suffering and dislocations of both humans and nonhumans. Scaling down calls us to lower the global population within a human-rights framework, move toward deindustrializing food production, and work to localize economies and contract global trade. Pulling back is the project of restoring terrestrial and marine ecologies, so that life’s abundance may resurge. The book argues that humanity will not advance by entrenching its domination over the biosphere, but will stagnate in the debased identity of nature-colonizer and decline in the predicament of vying for “natural resources.” Instead, humanity can chart another course, choosing to live in fellowship with our Earthly wild and domestic cohort, within vibrant ecologies, nestling human inhabitation inside a biodiverse, living planet.Less
Abundant Earth documents the loss of biodiversity underway and lays out the drivers of this destruction. It goes beyond the litany of causes—a growing population, rising livestock numbers, expanding economies and trade, and spreading infrastructures—to ask the question: Since it is well-understood that humanity’s expansionism is irreparably diminishing life’s richness, why are we not taking the needed steps to halt our expansionism? It argues that the worldview of human supremacy—the conviction that humans are superior to all other life-forms and entitled to use them and their places—stands in the way, for it normalizes humanity’s ongoing expansion. This worldview is an obstacle to recognizing that the conjoined strategy of scaling down the human enterprise and pulling back from expanses of land and seas is the means for addressing the ecological crisis and preempting the suffering and dislocations of both humans and nonhumans. Scaling down calls us to lower the global population within a human-rights framework, move toward deindustrializing food production, and work to localize economies and contract global trade. Pulling back is the project of restoring terrestrial and marine ecologies, so that life’s abundance may resurge. The book argues that humanity will not advance by entrenching its domination over the biosphere, but will stagnate in the debased identity of nature-colonizer and decline in the predicament of vying for “natural resources.” Instead, humanity can chart another course, choosing to live in fellowship with our Earthly wild and domestic cohort, within vibrant ecologies, nestling human inhabitation inside a biodiverse, living planet.
Stephen Polasky, Jennifer Schmitt, Christopher Costello, and Liaila Tajibaeva
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226760339
- eISBN:
- 9780226760353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226760353.003.0012
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter begins by reviewing important national and international policies that set the institutional context for the Serengeti ecosystem. Though the greater Serengeti ecosystem contains portions ...
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This chapter begins by reviewing important national and international policies that set the institutional context for the Serengeti ecosystem. Though the greater Serengeti ecosystem contains portions of Tanzania and Kenya, the discussion focuses on Tanzanian national policy. Policies determined at the national level in Tanzania define allowable human uses in various land designation categories. On the international level, the most important policy that affects the Serengeti ecosystem is the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species. The chapter also examines the influence of changes in human population on the Serengeti ecosystem. The household model developed in Chapter 10 is used to simulate the impact on the Serengeti ecosystem of three potential changes in policy, economic, and demographic conditions. In particular, it explores the effects of: (1) changes in antipoaching policy; (2) the establishment of wildlife management areas; and (3) changes in human population dynamics.Less
This chapter begins by reviewing important national and international policies that set the institutional context for the Serengeti ecosystem. Though the greater Serengeti ecosystem contains portions of Tanzania and Kenya, the discussion focuses on Tanzanian national policy. Policies determined at the national level in Tanzania define allowable human uses in various land designation categories. On the international level, the most important policy that affects the Serengeti ecosystem is the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species. The chapter also examines the influence of changes in human population on the Serengeti ecosystem. The household model developed in Chapter 10 is used to simulate the impact on the Serengeti ecosystem of three potential changes in policy, economic, and demographic conditions. In particular, it explores the effects of: (1) changes in antipoaching policy; (2) the establishment of wildlife management areas; and (3) changes in human population dynamics.
Anna B. Estes, Tobias Kuemmerle, Hadas Kushnir, V. C. Radeloff, and H. H. Shugart
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226195834
- eISBN:
- 9780226196336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226196336.003.0018
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
Protected areas are impacted by what takes place around their borders, and the nature and severity of these impacts is influenced by reserve size, land use and human populations. Contrary to the ...
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Protected areas are impacted by what takes place around their borders, and the nature and severity of these impacts is influenced by reserve size, land use and human populations. Contrary to the common assumption that immigration is the result of attractive forces associated with the protected area itself, our study suggests that people in western Serengeti are being pushed from their areas of origin by lack of arable land, which they find near the protected area. Effective, targeted conservation interventions require that we move beyond broad generalizations to correctly identify both the patterns and the drivers of human population trends and their relationship to both land-cover change and protected areas on a case-by-case basis.Less
Protected areas are impacted by what takes place around their borders, and the nature and severity of these impacts is influenced by reserve size, land use and human populations. Contrary to the common assumption that immigration is the result of attractive forces associated with the protected area itself, our study suggests that people in western Serengeti are being pushed from their areas of origin by lack of arable land, which they find near the protected area. Effective, targeted conservation interventions require that we move beyond broad generalizations to correctly identify both the patterns and the drivers of human population trends and their relationship to both land-cover change and protected areas on a case-by-case basis.
A. R. E. Sinclair, Craig Packer, and Simon A. R. Mduma (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226760339
- eISBN:
- 9780226760353
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226760353.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
Serengeti National Park is one of the world's most diverse ecosystems, a natural laboratory for ecology, evolution, and conservation, with a history that dates back at least four million years to the ...
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Serengeti National Park is one of the world's most diverse ecosystems, a natural laboratory for ecology, evolution, and conservation, with a history that dates back at least four million years to the beginnings of human evolution. The third of a series, this book is the result of a long-term integrated research project that documents changes to this unique ecosystem every ten years. Bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines—ecologists, paleontologists, economists, social scientists, mathematicians, and disease specialists—this volume focuses on the interactions between the natural system and the human-dominated agricultural system. By examining how changes in rainfall, wildebeest numbers, commodity prices, and human populations have impacted the Serengeti ecosystem, the book concludes that changes in the natural system have affected human welfare just as changes in the human system have impacted the natural world. To promote both the conservation of biota and the sustainability of human welfare, the book recommends community-based conservation and protected-area conservation. The book presents a look at the conservation status of one of earth's most renowned ecosystems.Less
Serengeti National Park is one of the world's most diverse ecosystems, a natural laboratory for ecology, evolution, and conservation, with a history that dates back at least four million years to the beginnings of human evolution. The third of a series, this book is the result of a long-term integrated research project that documents changes to this unique ecosystem every ten years. Bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines—ecologists, paleontologists, economists, social scientists, mathematicians, and disease specialists—this volume focuses on the interactions between the natural system and the human-dominated agricultural system. By examining how changes in rainfall, wildebeest numbers, commodity prices, and human populations have impacted the Serengeti ecosystem, the book concludes that changes in the natural system have affected human welfare just as changes in the human system have impacted the natural world. To promote both the conservation of biota and the sustainability of human welfare, the book recommends community-based conservation and protected-area conservation. The book presents a look at the conservation status of one of earth's most renowned ecosystems.
Han Olff and J. Grant C. Hopcraft
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226760339
- eISBN:
- 9780226760353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226760353.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter analyzes how current human population density and land use respond to environmental gradients, with an emphasis on rainfall and soil fertility, and compares this to the responses of ...
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This chapter analyzes how current human population density and land use respond to environmental gradients, with an emphasis on rainfall and soil fertility, and compares this to the responses of large resident herbivores. It identifies historic shifts that led to intensified human land use in East Africa, identifying three distinct phases: hunter-gatherer, agripastoralist, and modern commercialized societies. These three historic phases of human land use are analogous to current main land use systems in the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem: (1) parks for wildlife and ecotourism; (2) protected multiple-use areas where people and wildlife coexist; and (3) the rural/village areas, with agricultural and livestock systems managed by a variety of more or less formal land tenure systems. This sets the scene for a discussion of the resource basis of human-wildlife interactions in savannas, from which we can learn to manage these interactions better in the future.Less
This chapter analyzes how current human population density and land use respond to environmental gradients, with an emphasis on rainfall and soil fertility, and compares this to the responses of large resident herbivores. It identifies historic shifts that led to intensified human land use in East Africa, identifying three distinct phases: hunter-gatherer, agripastoralist, and modern commercialized societies. These three historic phases of human land use are analogous to current main land use systems in the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem: (1) parks for wildlife and ecotourism; (2) protected multiple-use areas where people and wildlife coexist; and (3) the rural/village areas, with agricultural and livestock systems managed by a variety of more or less formal land tenure systems. This sets the scene for a discussion of the resource basis of human-wildlife interactions in savannas, from which we can learn to manage these interactions better in the future.
Cameron L. McNeil
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813033310
- eISBN:
- 9780813039527
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813033310.003.0004
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This chapter examines the environmental record of human population and migration in the Copan Valley, Honduras, which is the most prominent archaeological site in the region defined in this book as ...
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This chapter examines the environmental record of human population and migration in the Copan Valley, Honduras, which is the most prominent archaeological site in the region defined in this book as the Ch'orti' area. It analyzes settlement patterns and material culture and explores how data from two sediment cores extracted from under bodies of water in the Copan Valley can contribute to debates on human population in this area. The findings suggest that Maya may have arrived in the valley a couple of hundred years prior to the arrival of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'.Less
This chapter examines the environmental record of human population and migration in the Copan Valley, Honduras, which is the most prominent archaeological site in the region defined in this book as the Ch'orti' area. It analyzes settlement patterns and material culture and explores how data from two sediment cores extracted from under bodies of water in the Copan Valley can contribute to debates on human population in this area. The findings suggest that Maya may have arrived in the valley a couple of hundred years prior to the arrival of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'.
Kathleen A. Galvin, Randall B. Boone, J. Terrence McCabe, Ann L. Magennis, and Tyler A. Beeton
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226195834
- eISBN:
- 9780226196336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226196336.003.0017
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
The NCA is distinctive to all of the country’s other protected areas as they are designated as Game Reserves, Wildlife Management Areas, Forest Reserves or National Parks. The NCA is currently ...
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The NCA is distinctive to all of the country’s other protected areas as they are designated as Game Reserves, Wildlife Management Areas, Forest Reserves or National Parks. The NCA is currently governed by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) under the auspices of the Wildlife Division for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT). Pressures that affect other pastoral regions such as land fragmentation, privatization, diversification and intensification of income-related activities are not common in the NCA. Rather, a complex history of conservation policies in conjunction with human population dynamics, food insecurity, disease interactions and land use changes through time informs our understanding of the current conditions of the NCA. We explore components of this system with an emphasis on human population changes, food security, wildlife-livestock dynamics and land use changes within the context of conservation policy. These factors account, in large part, for the current state of conservation and human wellbeing in the NCA. The chapter is a synthesis of scholarly literature while also providing primary data on human health and on cultivation.Less
The NCA is distinctive to all of the country’s other protected areas as they are designated as Game Reserves, Wildlife Management Areas, Forest Reserves or National Parks. The NCA is currently governed by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) under the auspices of the Wildlife Division for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT). Pressures that affect other pastoral regions such as land fragmentation, privatization, diversification and intensification of income-related activities are not common in the NCA. Rather, a complex history of conservation policies in conjunction with human population dynamics, food insecurity, disease interactions and land use changes through time informs our understanding of the current conditions of the NCA. We explore components of this system with an emphasis on human population changes, food security, wildlife-livestock dynamics and land use changes within the context of conservation policy. These factors account, in large part, for the current state of conservation and human wellbeing in the NCA. The chapter is a synthesis of scholarly literature while also providing primary data on human health and on cultivation.
Franklin Allen, Jere R. Behrman, Nancy Birdsall, Shahrokh Fardoust, Dani Rodrik, Andrew Steer, and Arvind Subramanian
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198723455
- eISBN:
- 9780191790065
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198723455.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, International, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Substantial progress in the fight against extreme poverty was made in the past two decades. But the slowdown in global economic growth and significant increases in income inequality in many developed ...
More
Substantial progress in the fight against extreme poverty was made in the past two decades. But the slowdown in global economic growth and significant increases in income inequality in many developed and developing countries raise serious concerns about the continuation of this trend into the twenty-first century. The time has come to think seriously about how improvements in official global governance, coupled with and reenforced by rising activism of “global citizens,” can lead to welfare-enhancing and more equitable results for global citizens through better national and international policies. This book examines the factors that are most likely to facilitate the process of beneficial economic growth in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. It shows that the legacies of the 2008-9 crisis-high unemployment, massive excess capacity, and high levels of debt-are likely to reduce the standard of living of millions of people in many countries over a long period of adjustment and that fluctuations in international trade, financial markets, and commodity prices, as well as the tendency of institutions at both the national and international level to favor the interests of the better-off and more powerful, pose substantial risks for citizens of all countries. The chapters on the future of economic, human capital and population, international trade, international finance, natural resources and climate change, and global economic governance and their policy implications are intended to stimulate public interest and facilitate the exchange of ideas and policy dialogue.Less
Substantial progress in the fight against extreme poverty was made in the past two decades. But the slowdown in global economic growth and significant increases in income inequality in many developed and developing countries raise serious concerns about the continuation of this trend into the twenty-first century. The time has come to think seriously about how improvements in official global governance, coupled with and reenforced by rising activism of “global citizens,” can lead to welfare-enhancing and more equitable results for global citizens through better national and international policies. This book examines the factors that are most likely to facilitate the process of beneficial economic growth in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. It shows that the legacies of the 2008-9 crisis-high unemployment, massive excess capacity, and high levels of debt-are likely to reduce the standard of living of millions of people in many countries over a long period of adjustment and that fluctuations in international trade, financial markets, and commodity prices, as well as the tendency of institutions at both the national and international level to favor the interests of the better-off and more powerful, pose substantial risks for citizens of all countries. The chapters on the future of economic, human capital and population, international trade, international finance, natural resources and climate change, and global economic governance and their policy implications are intended to stimulate public interest and facilitate the exchange of ideas and policy dialogue.
E.J. Michael Witzel
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780195367461
- eISBN:
- 9780199932047
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367461.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
This book is an ambitious work on mythology. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics, and human population genetics, this book reconstructs ...
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This book is an ambitious work on mythology. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics, and human population genetics, this book reconstructs a single original African source for our collective myths, dating back some 100,000 years. Identifying features shared by this “Out of Africa” mythology and its northern Eurasian offshoots, this book suggests that these common myths—recounted by the communities of the “African Eve”—are the earliest evidence of ancient spirituality. Moreover these common features, the book shows, survive today in all major religions.Less
This book is an ambitious work on mythology. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics, and human population genetics, this book reconstructs a single original African source for our collective myths, dating back some 100,000 years. Identifying features shared by this “Out of Africa” mythology and its northern Eurasian offshoots, this book suggests that these common myths—recounted by the communities of the “African Eve”—are the earliest evidence of ancient spirituality. Moreover these common features, the book shows, survive today in all major religions.
Frank H. T. Rhodes
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702440
- eISBN:
- 9781501706233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702440.003.0014
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
This chapter explains how the partnership of Louis and Mary Leakey was of major importance in establishing the African origin and early evolution of prehistoric human populations. It then goes on to ...
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This chapter explains how the partnership of Louis and Mary Leakey was of major importance in establishing the African origin and early evolution of prehistoric human populations. It then goes on to discuss early human history in general, and delves into the fossil evidence regarding our early human ancestors—from the early primates to Mary Leakey's discovery of fossil footprints made 3.6 million years ago—in an attempt to puzzle out the question of human ancestry and the origin of human and prehuman australopithecine species. But the chapter also looks further back, to the origin of the larger group of hominoids—the great apes and the lesser apes—with which we share so many features.Less
This chapter explains how the partnership of Louis and Mary Leakey was of major importance in establishing the African origin and early evolution of prehistoric human populations. It then goes on to discuss early human history in general, and delves into the fossil evidence regarding our early human ancestors—from the early primates to Mary Leakey's discovery of fossil footprints made 3.6 million years ago—in an attempt to puzzle out the question of human ancestry and the origin of human and prehuman australopithecine species. But the chapter also looks further back, to the origin of the larger group of hominoids—the great apes and the lesser apes—with which we share so many features.
Steve Selvin
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195146189
- eISBN:
- 9780199864720
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146189.003.0007
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This chapter identifies the similarities and differences among a series of human populations based on variations in genetic frequencies. Using gene frequency data from twenty-six race/ethnicity ...
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This chapter identifies the similarities and differences among a series of human populations based on variations in genetic frequencies. Using gene frequency data from twenty-six race/ethnicity groups provides a basis for classifying these groups into a series of categories indicating genetic similarity/dissimilarity. Similarity defined by a nearest-neighbor criterion based on Euclidean distance allows two approaches to classification: one based on a dendrogram and the other on the first two principal components. Both approaches produce rather similar results when applied to the genetic variant data made up of thirteen genetic frequencies. Starting from the closest groups (U.S. whites and Germans), the description of closeness continues until the most dissimilar groups are identified (Bantu, Navaho, and Guinean). The two descriptive approaches clearly identify two and, perhaps, three definite clusters based on gene frequencies. The results are more qualitative (graphic) than quantitative, which is typical of many cluster analysis techniques.Less
This chapter identifies the similarities and differences among a series of human populations based on variations in genetic frequencies. Using gene frequency data from twenty-six race/ethnicity groups provides a basis for classifying these groups into a series of categories indicating genetic similarity/dissimilarity. Similarity defined by a nearest-neighbor criterion based on Euclidean distance allows two approaches to classification: one based on a dendrogram and the other on the first two principal components. Both approaches produce rather similar results when applied to the genetic variant data made up of thirteen genetic frequencies. Starting from the closest groups (U.S. whites and Germans), the description of closeness continues until the most dissimilar groups are identified (Bantu, Navaho, and Guinean). The two descriptive approaches clearly identify two and, perhaps, three definite clusters based on gene frequencies. The results are more qualitative (graphic) than quantitative, which is typical of many cluster analysis techniques.
Marianne Sommer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226347325
- eISBN:
- 9780226349879
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226349879.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The book deals with human histories that have been reconstructed on the basis of bones, organisms, and molecules in the twentieth century. It focuses on the work of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Julian ...
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The book deals with human histories that have been reconstructed on the basis of bones, organisms, and molecules in the twentieth century. It focuses on the work of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Julian Sorell Huxley, and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology, and human population genetics. Besides following the history of science, it is an analysis of the circulation of knowledge at the museum, the zoo, the media through organizations such as UNESCO, and projects like the Human Genome Diversity Project and the Genographic Project. The book illuminates the ways in which evolutionary perspectives informed other scholarly and scientific disciplines, areas from national and international politics to literature and art, and how have they been adapted by individual readers and visitors to their own purposes, ‘identities’, and orientations in life. The knowledge the protagonists created not only impacted ideas about imperialism, colonialism, (inter-)nationalism, or totalitarianism, but also interfered with notions of race, ethnicity, and gender. Central to their totalizing projects was the collection, preservation, analysis, and management of bones, organisms, and molecules at museums, and other kinds of cultural diversity, in national parks, and databanks, has been a concern. With Huxley’s science, popularization, and public work at UNESCO and conservation organizations, concepts such as diversity, trusteeship, heritage, applied ecology, and evolutionary humanism gained in currency. All three protagonists also worked with particular understandings of ‘memory’, as related to heredity or as the store of cultural knowledge, and they worked toward what they believed to be progress human evolution.Less
The book deals with human histories that have been reconstructed on the basis of bones, organisms, and molecules in the twentieth century. It focuses on the work of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Julian Sorell Huxley, and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology, and human population genetics. Besides following the history of science, it is an analysis of the circulation of knowledge at the museum, the zoo, the media through organizations such as UNESCO, and projects like the Human Genome Diversity Project and the Genographic Project. The book illuminates the ways in which evolutionary perspectives informed other scholarly and scientific disciplines, areas from national and international politics to literature and art, and how have they been adapted by individual readers and visitors to their own purposes, ‘identities’, and orientations in life. The knowledge the protagonists created not only impacted ideas about imperialism, colonialism, (inter-)nationalism, or totalitarianism, but also interfered with notions of race, ethnicity, and gender. Central to their totalizing projects was the collection, preservation, analysis, and management of bones, organisms, and molecules at museums, and other kinds of cultural diversity, in national parks, and databanks, has been a concern. With Huxley’s science, popularization, and public work at UNESCO and conservation organizations, concepts such as diversity, trusteeship, heritage, applied ecology, and evolutionary humanism gained in currency. All three protagonists also worked with particular understandings of ‘memory’, as related to heredity or as the store of cultural knowledge, and they worked toward what they believed to be progress human evolution.
Joseph L. Graves
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190465285
- eISBN:
- 9780190465315
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190465285.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Comparative Politics
This chapter provides historical contextualization of the crisis faced by the social construction approach of race. It reveals that anatomically modern humans are a young species that spent the ...
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This chapter provides historical contextualization of the crisis faced by the social construction approach of race. It reveals that anatomically modern humans are a young species that spent the majority of their existence living in a narrow range of eastern Africa. Indeed the exit of our species has been pushed forward in time from previous estimates. Evolutionary forces of natural selection and genetic drift have differentiated human populations, but this differentiation has been small. Most of the signal of human differentiation occurs in noncoding loci that do not face the force of purifying selection. Within the coding loci, some adaptation to local conditions has occurred. This adaptation does not allow the unambiguous classification of human populations into biological races.Less
This chapter provides historical contextualization of the crisis faced by the social construction approach of race. It reveals that anatomically modern humans are a young species that spent the majority of their existence living in a narrow range of eastern Africa. Indeed the exit of our species has been pushed forward in time from previous estimates. Evolutionary forces of natural selection and genetic drift have differentiated human populations, but this differentiation has been small. Most of the signal of human differentiation occurs in noncoding loci that do not face the force of purifying selection. Within the coding loci, some adaptation to local conditions has occurred. This adaptation does not allow the unambiguous classification of human populations into biological races.
Lauren E. Brown and Ann Mesrobian
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520235922
- eISBN:
- 9780520929432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520235922.003.0023
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
A number of species of amphibians have long been recognized as sliding toward extinction. For example, Houston toads (Bufo houstonensis) were first thought to be nearing extinction forty years ago, ...
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A number of species of amphibians have long been recognized as sliding toward extinction. For example, Houston toads (Bufo houstonensis) were first thought to be nearing extinction forty years ago, in 1962. There is evidence that humans began to effect their decline over a half century ago (in the late 1940s), and research began on the trend toward extinction in 1965. These events occurred long before the recent media hype about amphibian population declines. This chapter reviews the relevant biology of Houston toads and discusses some of the major political interactions concerning the species. It seems almost axiomatic that endangered species become involved in political entanglements, and Houston toads are no exception. Political adversaries of Houston toads have included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, politicians in Texas and Washington, real estate developers and other moneyed interests, and human population growth. This chapter presents accounts of the major battles in which Houston toads played a central role.Less
A number of species of amphibians have long been recognized as sliding toward extinction. For example, Houston toads (Bufo houstonensis) were first thought to be nearing extinction forty years ago, in 1962. There is evidence that humans began to effect their decline over a half century ago (in the late 1940s), and research began on the trend toward extinction in 1965. These events occurred long before the recent media hype about amphibian population declines. This chapter reviews the relevant biology of Houston toads and discusses some of the major political interactions concerning the species. It seems almost axiomatic that endangered species become involved in political entanglements, and Houston toads are no exception. Political adversaries of Houston toads have included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, politicians in Texas and Washington, real estate developers and other moneyed interests, and human population growth. This chapter presents accounts of the major battles in which Houston toads played a central role.
