Long-term population change

No aspect of understanding transformations of the biosphere is more fascinating or important than that of the patterns of human population change. It is fascinating because population is simultaneously a constituent of the biosphere and an agent of transformation. At no time has this association seemed more important than in the recent period of global transformation and population growth. This study places these patterns and linkages in a broader perspective through an exploration of long-term population change at several spatial and temporal scales, focusing on the patterns of millennial-scale population change in four regions. Some tentative exegeses are offered of patterns of long-term population change at these temporal and spatial scales and of their association with some of the more fundamental changes in regional environments. The regions studied are the Egyptian Nile Valley, the Tigris-Euphrates lowlands, the Basin of Mexico, and the central Maya lowlands of Mexico and Guatemala. -from Authors