Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:01:43.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Functional Estimator of Population from Floor Area

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Polly Wiessner*
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropology, The University of Michigan

Abstract

This paper presents an alternative to Naroll's formula for estimating population size from settlement area. It uses an allometric model modified for hunter-gatherer camps. In this model, the parameters are derived theoretically to describe mean area per person and the geometric properties of population distribution. The proposed model is then tested on 16 !Kung Bushmen settlements.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bertalanfly, Ludwig von 1968 General system theory. George Braziller, New York.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, Stephen 1971 An addition to Naroll's suggested floor area and settlement population relationship. American Antiquity 36:210211.Google Scholar
Naroll, Raoul 1962 Floor area and settlement population. American Antiquity 27:587588.Google Scholar
Nordbeck, Stig 1971 Urban allometric growth. Geograflska Annaler 53B-1:5467.Google Scholar
Tobler, Waldo 1969 Satellite confirmation of settlement size coefficients. Area 3:3034.Google Scholar
Turnbull, Colin 1965 Wayward servants; the two worlds of the African Pygmies. Natural History Press, Garden City.Google Scholar
Williams, Bobby Joe 1968 Establishing cultural heterogeneities in settlement patterns: an ethnographic example. In New perspectives in archaeology, edited by L. R., and Binford, S. R., pp. 161170. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Woodburn, James 1968 Stability and flexibility in Hadza residential groupings. In Man, The Hunter, edited by Lee, R. G. and DeVore, I., pp. 103110. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Yellen, John n.d. Settlement pattern of the !Kung Bushmen: an archaeological perspective. In Kalahari hunter gatherers, edited by Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I.. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.. (In press, ms. 1972.)Google Scholar