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Fertility in the Prehistoric Midwest: A Critique of Unifactorial Models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas D. Holland
Thomas D. Holland*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211
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Abstract

Cultivation of starchy seeds must be recognized as a complex of variables upon which selection operates and of which population growth is the inherent measure of success. Early weaning through the use of starchy-seed gruels, though recently proposed as the principal factor in the increase of fertility, is insufficient as a prime mover for population growth in west-central Illinois during the Middle and Late Woodland periods.

Résumé

Résumé

El cultivo de semillas ricas en féculas debe ser reconocido como un complejo de variables sobre las cuales opera la selección, de estas variables, el crecimiento poblacional es una buena medida del logro reproductor. Se ha propuesto que el principal factor del incremento de lafertilidad se debe al destete temprano de los niños, por el uso de coladas elaboradas a partir de semillas con alto contenido de almidón; sin embargo, consideramos que tal argumento no es sufficiente como para explicar el aumento poblacional en la región centro-occidental del estado norteamericano de Illinois, durante los períodos Middle Woodland y Late Woodland.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , July 1989 , pp. 614 - 625
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1989

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