Lecture Description

In addition to cultural controls acting to maximize fertility, there are important, and often competing, interests of individual families to limit fertility. Unwanted births are dealt with by infanticide in many cultures. Additionally, fertility is regularly controlled by limiting marriage within a culture. Another very important factor in population growth, especially in the tropics, is food availability. Heavy rains in the tropics wash nutrients away, leaving deficient soils. Much of Africa is either too dry or too wet. Africa was, until recently, not densely populated. Since land was available and because more children meant more security and power, a culture evolved that emphasized high fertility, justified by the need for descendants to pacify ancestors. Sub-Saharan (tropical) Africa has the highest birth rates in the world. As an example, Niger, just south of the Sahara desert has a fertility rate of almost eight children per woman while, in the Mediterranean zone, Morocco, just north of the Sahara, but also a Sunni Muslim country, has a rate of only 3.3 children per woman.

Course Description

This survey course introduces students to the important and basic material on human fertility, population growth, the demographic transition and population policy. Topics include: the human and environmental dimensions of population pressure, demographic history, economic and cultural causes of demographic change, environmental carrying capacity and sustainability. Political, religious and ethical issues surrounding fertility are also addressed. The lectures and readings attempt to balance theoretical and demographic scale analyzes with studies of individual humans and communities. The perspective is global with both developed and developing countries included.

Lectures

1. Evolution of Sex and Reproductive Strategies
2. Sex and Violence Among the Apes
3. From Ape to Human
4. When Humans Were Scarce
5. Why Is Africa Different?
6. Malthusian Times
7. Demographic Transition in Europe; Mortality Decline
8. Demographic Transition in Europe; Fertility Decline
9. Demographic Transition in Europe
10. Quantitative Aspects
11. Low Fertility in Developed Countries (Guest Lecture by Michael Teitelbaum)
12. Human and Environmental Impacts
13. Fertility Attitudes and Practices
14. Demographic Transition in Developing Countries
15. Female Disadvantage
16. Population in Traditional China
17. Population in Modern China
18. Economic Impact of Population Growth
19. Economic Motivations for Fertility
20. Teen Sexuality and Teen Pregnancy
21. Global Demography of Abortion
22. Media and the Fertility Transition in Developing Countries (Guest Lecture by William Ryerson)
23. Biology and History of Abortion
24. Population and the Environment