Population, Reproduction, and Fertility in Melanesia

Download or read book Population, Reproduction, and Fertility in Melanesia written by Stanley J. Ulijaszek and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human biological fertility was considered a important issue to anthropologists and colonial administrators in the first part of the 20th century, as a dramatic decline in population was observed in many regions. However, the total demise of Melanesian populations predicted by some never happened; on the contrary, a rapid population increase took place for the second part of the 20th century. This volume explores relationships between human fertility and reproduction, subsistence systems, the symbolic use of ideas of fertility and reproduction in linking landscape to individuals and populations, in Melanesian societies, past and present. It thus offers an important contribution to our understanding of the implications of social and economic change for reproduction and fertility in the broadest sense.