Population Dynamics of a Philippine Rain Forest People
The San Ildefonso Agta
John D. Early and Thomas N. Headland
The Agta Negrito people have been hunters and gatherers in the tropical rain forests of the Philippines for centuries. This book investigates a small group of the Agta living on Luzon Island during their transition from a foraging society to a landless group of agricultural workers.
The core of the book is a demographic study of fertility, mortality, and migration over a 44-year period. It is one of only two studies that have completely reconstructed the population dynamics of a foraging group without relying on mathematical models. Ethnographic and narrative historical sections of the book establish the contexts for the demographic data and enhance the study’s readability. As a case history of social and population dynamics in a remote frontier region, the work describes the impact of international commercial interests on both the rain forest and the landless peasantry seeking to survive.
The work is of exceptional value because of the difficulties of obtaining reliable demographic data from a foraging group, and for the long-term coverage of the quantitative database.
John D. Early, retired professor of anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, is the author of several books, most recently (with John F. Peters) The Population Dynamics of the Mucajai Yanomama.
Thomas N. Headland, adjunct professor of linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington and anthropology consultant for the Summer Institute of Linguistics, is the coeditor of Tropical Deforestation: The Human Dimension and of Emics and Etics: The Insider/Outsider Debate.
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Awards
Choice Outstanding Academic Title - 1998
"A landmark in ethnographic demography. Based on more than 23 years' fieldwork and drawing from a database of 44 years, it is the first and only full study of the population dynamics of a hunting-gathering (foraging) group in Asia that relies on real actuarial data rather than mathematical models. . . . Excellent writing." -- Choice
--Choice
"Based on more than 23 years' fieldwork and drawing from a database of 44 years, it is the first and only full study of the population dynamics of a hunting-gathering (foraging) group in Asia that relies on real actuarial data rather than mathematical models. The extreme care, clarity, and precision with which geographic, demographic, and sociocultural factors are delineated and analyzed makes this a model for future works." -- Blackwell's Book Services
--Blackwell's Book Services
"A valuable case study of how local population dynamics can unfold with departure from a foraging lifeway. The great strength of the study is in long-term, careful, systematic, and localized collection and cross-checking of data that documents the local microdynamics of population change." -- American Anthropologist
--American Anthropologist
"In many respects, this book can serve as a model of demographic methodology for studying "anthropological" (I.e., small and lacking written records for vital events and populations." -American Journal of Human Biology
--American Journal of Human Biology
"This objective appraisal of the population dynamics of a group demonstrably under immediate threat is important material for representing the rights of indigenous people, overwhelmed by the unequal processes of developmental change." -Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
--Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
"An impressive reconstruction of all the demographic variables of a forager population." - Journal of Peasant Studies
--Journal of Peasant Studies
"Population Dynamics of Philippine Rain Forest People is unique because it analyzes demographic data of a foraging group over a long period of time and the subsequent cultural changes brought on by the timber industry." - Economic Botany
--Economic Botany
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