Population-area scaling in contacted and uncontacted Amazonian indigenous groups

Summary

Sublinear population-area scaling relations have been documented across a range of human societies, from hunter-gatherers to both ancient and modern cities. As such, these scaling patterns seem to capture a common statistical feature of human spatial ecology. In this talk we examine the spatial ecology of both recently-contacted and uncontacted groups in the Amazon Basin. Using a combination of census data, government estimates and imagery we find sublinear scaling between the size of villages and their populations in both contacted and uncontacted groups. We discuss these results and show how scaling-based research may be useful in assessing the demographic health of uncontacted populations and their future viability.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Settlement Scaling in Archaeology—Not Just Modern, Not Just Urban

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15528