Changing Population and Environmental Hazards Throughout Human History

The Hadza are hunters and gatherers of wild foods in dry scrublands of east Africa. Culture shapes the environments in which people live and the hazards they face. The evolution of culture has three facets: population size and density, increase in complexity, and increase in energy flow. Each of these has significant effects on health and disease. Demographic anthropology uses the methods of demography to study population but is usually concerned with the kind of small communities typically studied by anthropologists. Papua New Guinea is an island nation in the South Pacific that became independent of Australia in 1975. It has a population of more than 6 million people, who speak more than 800 distinct languages. The history of environmental health shows that change was something of a trial-and-error process. The larger American cities installed waterworks between 1800 and 1860, but they did not construct sewers until the vastly increased household use of water created problems with flooding and pollution.

Geography · Disaster Management and Resilience