On generating birth rates from skeletal populations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8320686 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sheryl Horowitz (Stanford University), George J Armelagos (University of Massachusetts Amherst), George Armelagos, Ken Wachter (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 189-196 |
| Publication date | 1988-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ajpa.1330760207 |
| PMID | 3414790 |
| OpenAlex | W2102428682 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 30 |
| References cited | 3 |
Sattenspiel and Harpending (1983, American Antiquity 48(3): 489–498) have stated that the life expectancy at birth ( e ) which paleodemographers calculate from skeletal population data is actually the mean age at death (ā d ) of the population. Yet, only when a population is neither growing or declining (i.e., is stationary) are these two statistics equivalent. They further assert, that the mean age at the death (ā d ) is more accurately interpreted as a measure of the fertility of the population. While we support their statement that since paleodemographic calculations use skeletal evidence of death, these do not a priori produce life expectancy values, we disagree that the inverse of the birth rate is a substitute for the average age at death (ā d ). The following pages demonstrate that: 1) An exact expression for the relationship between ā d and 1/ b can be derived using standard stable population theory, wherein ā d = 1/ b is shown to be a special case. 2) There are only two cases when ā d = 1/ b is an identity. 3) Whereas empirically ā d and 1/ b appear to correspond closely, this is an artifact of heavy mortality at early ages, which is a characteristic of the populations being considered. 4) Without insights into the behavioral dynamics of the situation any assessment of the demographics of the population is questionable
Birth rate · Birth–death process · Demographic analysis · Fertility · Life expectancy · Mortality rate · Population · Sociology · Statistics · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Mathematics · Paleopathology and ancient diseases
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| Unique citing works | 30 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,83 |
| Citation span | 1990 - 2021 (32) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 29 |