A modeling approach to estimate the historical population size of the Patagonian Kawésqar people

Bibliographic Data

ID10227604
AuthorsSergio A Estay (0000-0002-3797-8964, Austral University of Chile, corresponding author), Daniela N López (0000-0003-2028-8438, Austral University of Chile), Carmen P Silva (Austral University of Chile), Eugenia Gayó (0000-0003-0746-0512, Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile), Virginia Mcrostie (0000-0002-3146-3345, Escuela de Antropología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile), Maurício Lima (0000-0002-3700-2945, Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile)
Year2022
Volume32
Issue6
Pages578-583
Publication date2022-02-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Holocene (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-6836 • E-ISSN: 1477-0911
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09596836221080761
OpenAlexW4214742697
LanguageEN
References cited29

The study of human-gatherers societies’ demography used to be a difficult task due to the lack of direct evidence to support the estimations. This is the case of several human groups from Pacific Patagonia whose historical population size estimations are controversial. This study estimated the historical population size for the Kawésqar people using direct and indirect evidence. Thus, we collated past estimations from experts and encounter rates distribution in time and space to generate a statistical approximation for population size. We used weights to include the reliability of such past estimations under three modeling scenarios. Our results indicate that the historical population ranged roughly between 3700 and 3900 individuals before the massive contact with Chileans and European people. The approach developed here for combining and integrating different evidence for estimating population in Kawésqar people, emerges as a promising and valuable tool to study the demography of other hunter-gatherer societies in South America

Econometrics · Economic geography · Economics · Estimation · Geography · Population · Population size · Sociology · Demography · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

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