Search Results

The Settler

Robert Garland

in Wandering Greeks: The Ancient Greek Diaspora from the Age of Homer to the Death of Alexander the Great

This chapter looks at settlements. The Ionian migration, which was in the nature of a mass exodus, led principally to the settlement of the Aegean islands and the (now Turkish) Western Anatolian ... More

This chapter looks at settlements. The Ionian migration, which was in the nature of a mass exodus, led principally to the settlement of the Aegean islands and the (now Turkish) Western Anatolian coastline in the region between Smyrna and Miletus. Some time later Aeolian Greeks living in Thessaly settled in the region north of Smyrna, while Dorians from the Peloponnese settled to the south of Miletus. A second wave of settlement occurred in the archaic period and lasted from around the middle of the eighth century to the end of the sixth. The chapter assesses why so many Greeks came to settle permanently abroad. One theory is that many settlements were founded in response to overpopulation and land hunger. Another explanation is resource fluctuations. However, though overpopulation and land hunger may have been prominent factors, each community had its own specific mix of reasons for sending pioneers abroad.Less

Europe on the Brink

Donald Bloxham

in The Final Solution: A Genocide

Europe experienced the peak of its superiority over other nations during the twentieth century. With the advent of urbanization and the emancipation of the serfs in the Russian and Austrian empires, ... More

Europe experienced the peak of its superiority over other nations during the twentieth century. With the advent of urbanization and the emancipation of the serfs in the Russian and Austrian empires, most countries experienced immense growth in population from 1800 to 1900. This boom in population growth brought about increased productivity through industrialization and social reform. However, this resulted in overpopulation and an assortment of other problems that involved a relative shift in the prices of agricultural commodities and intensified social discontent, especially among minority groups. This chapter examines the patterns and interrelationships of the proposed ‘solutions’ in ‘greater Europe’ during 1875 to 1949.Less

The Repugnant Conclusion

Derek Parfit

in Reasons and Persons

Is it better if more people live? This chapter examines the effects of population growth on existing people, overpopulation, whether a decline in the quality of life could always be made up for by a ... More

Is it better if more people live? This chapter examines the effects of population growth on existing people, overpopulation, whether a decline in the quality of life could always be made up for by a sufficient increase in the number of people living. It discusses a repugnant conclusion and the level at which lives cease to be worth living.Less

The Absurd Conclusion

Derek Parfit

in Reasons and Persons

Examines cases of conceiving a happy or a wretched child; how contractualism cannot solve questions about our obligations to future generations; whether outcomes can be worse if they are worse for no ... More

Examines cases of conceiving a happy or a wretched child; how contractualism cannot solve questions about our obligations to future generations; whether outcomes can be worse if they are worse for no one. It examines person‐affecting principles; the sum of suffering; the valueless level; and lexical views.Less

Nothing Simple

David Ehrenfeld

in Title Pages

There is a saying attributed to the eighteenth-century Ukrainian philosopher Gregory Skovoroda that has long stayed in my mind. Skovoroda wrote that “we ... More

There is a saying attributed to the eighteenth-century Ukrainian philosopher Gregory Skovoroda that has long stayed in my mind. Skovoroda wrote that “we must be grateful to God that He created the world in such a way that everything simple is true and everything complicated is untrue.” I have always suspected this statement to be very profound, and I would like to believe it. I often do believe it. As I write these words, I am pretty sure that I believe it. But I can’t say that I am 100 percent free of doubt. Gregory Skovoroda came of simple peasant stock and lived in the days before multinational corporations, environmental management, lengthy tax returns, and global free trade. I know that great wisdom is supposed to be timeless, unaffected by changing circumstances, yet I wonder if exceptions can be made for times like ours. The trouble is that so many of the things I used to think were simple have turned out to be complicated. At times, usually around six in the morning when I am still in bed and life seems grim, I even wonder whether anything is simple anymore. Take the case of overpopulation. Any ecologist worthy of the name knows two things about overpopulation: first, it is bad; and second, the United States, because of its excessive per capita consumption, is already over populated. In this country, ecological, social, political, cultural, and economic systems have all been strained past the breaking point by the burden of too many people consuming too much. True, most citizens do not yet perceive the magnitude of the danger. The root causes of our worst problems rarely appear in plain view. As the biologist and social critic Garrett Hardin once wrote, “Nobody ever dies of overpopulation”; the death certificate—if there is a death certificate—lists something more tangible such as tuberculosis or AIDS. It is difficult to acknowledge distant ultimate causes such as over population when there is something easier and closer at hand to blame. Nevertheless, increasing numbers of people, even some economists, are beginning to recognize the simple idea that the world and its wealth are finite and that population growth must stop. Less

Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics: Lessons from the Past for the Future

David G. Anderson and Kirk A. Maasch

in Humans and the Environment: New Archaeological Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century

As the twenty-first century winds onward, it is becoming increasingly clear that understanding how climate affects human cultural systems is critically ... More

As the twenty-first century winds onward, it is becoming increasingly clear that understanding how climate affects human cultural systems is critically important. Indeed, it has been argued by many researchers that how we respond to changing global climate is one of the greatest scientific and political challenges facing our planetary technological civilization, comparable and closely intertwined with concerns about biological or nuclear warfare, famine, disease, overpopulation, or environmental degradation. By any reasonable evaluation of the evidence, this century, and likely the several centuries that follow it, will be characterized by dramatic climate change, perhaps as significant in terms of its impact on our species as any climatic episodes that have occurred in the past. What we don’t know with much certainty is how these environmental changes will play out across the planet, and how individuals as well as nation states will respond to them. Archaeology has a major role to play in helping us move through this period of crisis, however, by showing us how human cultures in the past responded to dramatic changes in climate. As the work of many archaeological scholars has shown, climate change has not invariably proven to be a bad thing: it is how people respond to it that is critical (e.g. Anderson et al. 2007b; Cooper and Sheets 2012; Crumley 2000, 2006, 2007; Hardesty 2007; McAnany and Yoffee 2010; McIntosh et al. 2000; Redman 2004a; Sandweiss and Quilter 2008; Sassaman and Anderson 1996; Tainter 2000). Archaeology working in tandem with a host of palaeoenvironmental and historical disciplines has lessons for our modern world and, as this volume demonstrates, we as a profession are making great strides in getting our message out. Perhaps the most important lesson from the past is that people, through their actions, are the drivers of cultural change, including response to climate change. Societies are not, however, monolithic entities that ‘chose’ to succeed or fail; people as individuals, groups, or factions through their actions generate outcomes, and often some demonstrate remarkable flexibility and resilience (Cooper and Sheets 2012; Diamond 2005; McAnany and Yoffee 2010). Less

Corsi e Ricorsi : In Vico’s Wake

Claude Lévi-Strauss

in We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays

Vico's theory of history as repetition

Welcoming Limitations

Eileen Crist

in Abundant Earth: Toward an Ecological Civilization

“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 ... More

“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

The Western Range Goes Global: Neo-Malthusianism and Pastoral Development

Nathan F. Sayre

in The Politics of Scale: A History of Rangeland Science

Range science was the only institutionalized science dedicated to rangelands when international pastoral development programs began following World War II. The concept of carrying capacity lay at the ... More

Range science was the only institutionalized science dedicated to rangelands when international pastoral development programs began following World War II. The concept of carrying capacity lay at the heart of a rising neo-Malthusianism in public debates and foreign policy circles, and the imperative of controlling stocking rates merged seamlessly with calls to prevent overpopulation from driving the world’s poor into the communists’ arms. None of their internal debates and frustrations at home prevented range scientists from taking the stage at major international conferences to proclaim the value of their knowledge. They presented the Southwest not as evidence of their own failure but as proof of the urgency to intervene in other arid and semi-arid rangelands to prevent “desertification”; outside capital was constructed as the solution rather than the cause of rangeland degradation. The World Bank and other multilateral agencies took ranching and range science as the model of modern livestock production, and the socio-spatial order and blind spots embedded in the discipline were imposed on pastoral communities and rangelands in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Drought and famine in the Sahel, coupled with the idea of the tragedy of the commons, lent breathless urgency and political cover to these measures.Less

Global concerns and future scenarios

Lawrence R. Walker

in The Biology of Disturbed Habitats

Anthropogenic disturbances are abusing our limited resources, which might lead to the collapse of human civilization, unless we are able to manage our resources in a sustainable manner. What we need ... More

Anthropogenic disturbances are abusing our limited resources, which might lead to the collapse of human civilization, unless we are able to manage our resources in a sustainable manner. What we need to do is understand the ecological ramifications of our disturbances and reduce their intensity and severity. This chapter explores the links between the spiraling intensification of disturbances and the two most pressing challenges humans face: global climate change and overpopulation. After reviewing lessons garnered from disturbance ecology, it presents several pathways toward a more hopeful future — where our interactions with disturbance regimes are more balanced and we become less vulnerable to disturbances than we are now. It argues that essential to any responsible future is an expanded understanding of how humans directly disturb their environment and indirectly exacerbate natural disturbances.Less

Universal Rights?: Population Control and the Powers of Reproductive Freedom

Alison Bashford

in Global Population: History, Geopolitics, and Life on Earth

This chapter explores the reproductive politics of postwar eugenics and overpopulation concerns, as well as that of a reproductive “freedom” that eventually transcended to a “human right.” ... More

This chapter explores the reproductive politics of postwar eugenics and overpopulation concerns, as well as that of a reproductive “freedom” that eventually transcended to a “human right.” Reproductive freedom here is characterized by persuasion rather than force (“Babies by choice and not by chance”)—it is the liberty accorded to all individuals to make an informed decision in the shaping of their own lives and those of their families. Postwar eugenics is often treated as the antithesis of this freedom, as it had been characterized by more coercive tactics such as those employed in Nazi Germany, with similarly illicit eugenics activities being presumed hidden under an innocuous veneer of “population control” in more recent times. The truth, however, is that postwar eugenics remains an open and explicit movement, its discourse inextricable from that of reproductive freedom.Less

Introduction: Talking About Demography in Israel

Alon Tal

in The Land Is Full: Addressing Overpopulation in Israel

This introductory chapter begins by discussing demographic trends in Israel, in particular its population growth which has resulted in a social and environmental crisis. Rapid demographic growth ... More

This introductory chapter begins by discussing demographic trends in Israel, in particular its population growth which has resulted in a social and environmental crisis. Rapid demographic growth exacerbates poverty and inequality, which have reached unprecedented dimensions in Israel. While public protesters demand social change, and government ministries suggest sundry solutions, the proposed responses ultimately only address symptoms. The proximate cause of Israel's ailing social predicament is overpopulation: crowded classrooms, crowded hospitals, crowded highways, and crowded courtrooms are all manifestations of an infrastructure unable to keep pace with growing demand. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, which is to answer the following question: What should Israel's demographic objectives be, and what public policies are needed to attain them? It argues that while Israel has made remarkable efforts to accommodate its growing population, this extraordinary demographic expansion is ultimately unsustainable.Less

To Understand Me, You’ll Have to Swallow a World: Margins, Multitudes, and the Nation in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Mrinalini Chakravorty

in In Stereotype: South Asia in the Global Literary Imaginary

This chapter considers the stereotypical representation of crowds and overpopulation in Salman Rushdie's narrative, Midnight's Children. The novel's overarching theme centers on the anxieties ... More

This chapter considers the stereotypical representation of crowds and overpopulation in Salman Rushdie's narrative, Midnight's Children. The novel's overarching theme centers on the anxieties regarding the future of the Indian subcontinent's newly formed postcolonies, which represent the political threshold of decolonization as a collective, polyphonic experience. Drawing on Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's thesis that the “productive flesh of the multitude” has the “unruly” capacity to challenge the neoliberal world order, Rushdie's magical realism in the story reinvents the colonial stereotypes of “dirty” and “disorderly” mobs to reflect a new immanent potential for the children of Midnight. The multitude exists in Rushdie's fiction to reify stereotypical images of the subcontinent as teeming, chaotic, heteronormative, excessively consumptive, and fecund—a vision of a people aligned with the goals of a liberal state.Less

Waste Lands: Sovereignty and the Anticolonial History of World Population

Alison Bashford

in Global Population: History, Geopolitics, and Life on Earth

This chapter illustrates the intimate relationship between colonialism and world population growth. For a time, the colonizing of global empty spaces—“waste lands”—was rationalized as a means to ... More

This chapter illustrates the intimate relationship between colonialism and world population growth. For a time, the colonizing of global empty spaces—“waste lands”—was rationalized as a means to accommodate the colonizing nation's increasing modernization and overpopulation, and that the more recent development of all unoccupied lands being assimilated into modern political systems curtails the colonizers' attempts to make use of a spatial resource. Occupation of waste lands now had to undergo negotiation as per the law of nations, complicating the simpler colonial process of sovereignty over a given territory. Of course, the rights of a state to occupy waste lands would frequently be called into question; it is argued that the right of land occupation might simply be a matter of need, thus translating the spatial politics of earth to the politics of life.Less

Soil and Food: Agriculture and the Fertility of the Earth

Alison Bashford

in Global Population: History, Geopolitics, and Life on Earth

This chapter concerns the politicizing forces of food and agriculture, as well as their impact on global nutrition and thus, population. Consider the soil—the primary foundation of agriculture and ... More

This chapter concerns the politicizing forces of food and agriculture, as well as their impact on global nutrition and thus, population. Consider the soil—the primary foundation of agriculture and land cultivation—at once ubiquitous and mundane, the soil symbolizes land and territory and fertility, and the significance of its functions with regards to population growth and the old ideals of colonial expansion, among other things, cannot be overlooked. Population theorists of the mid-nineteenth century grappled with the importance of soil and its economic and political weight, and the agricultural sciences were inevitably joined to discussions regarding population (or, more specifically, overpopulation). While primarily a geopolitical concern, this preoccupation with soil would eventually yield the biopolitical implications to be discussed in the following chapters.Less

Sex: The Geopolitics of Birth Control

Alison Bashford

in Global Population: History, Geopolitics, and Life on Earth

This chapter discusses the geopolitics of birth control—more specifically in its implications towards the broader and (during the 1920s) more significant concern of food security and overpopulation. ... More

This chapter discusses the geopolitics of birth control—more specifically in its implications towards the broader and (during the 1920s) more significant concern of food security and overpopulation. The issue of contraception, birth control, and fertility had long been associated with the private, the intimate, and the ostensibly feminine sphere, with little regard for its impact on the broader scale of international relations, including immigration restrictions, economic development, and the shifting notion of “civilization” following the aftermath of the Second World War. Fertility rates (and conversely, mortality rates) were, after all, among the many complex ecological factors the population theorists of the time were struggling with. As women were increasingly empowered through ownership of their own bodies, they were able to effect a noticeable change within population statistics and thus, greatly influence the larger issue of population growth and resource allocation.Less