ANTH 322 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Thomas Robert Malthus, Carl O. Sauer, Franz Boas

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 322
• Professor: Jennifer Shaffer

Document Summary

Thomas robert malthus (1766-1834) founded the science of demography and wrote on population growth and resources. Observed that increases to food production improved the health and well-being of the population, leading to population growth which in turn required more increases to food production. Disease, war, and famine, along with other forms of population control serve to reduce the pressures of population. Charles darwin (1809-1882) published on the origin of species in 1859 to explain his theory of evolution in which differential survivorship and reproduction leads to variation. Living beings were descended from a single common ancestor. Influenced study of human and non-human primate evolution. Herbert spencer (1820-1903) developed the theory of sociocultural evolution and promoted the study of anthropology as a natural history study of cultures and people. Wrote on how humanity evolves from a relative, socially static and undifferentiated society to a utilitarian, socially dynamic and differentiated society where social structures and functions transform to meet needs.