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Environmental Productivity, Population Regulation, and Carrying Capacity
Author(s) -
Dewar Robert E.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1984.86.3.02a00040
Subject(s) - carrying capacity , productivity , confusion , axiom , balance (ability) , ecology , population , geography , environmental ethics , anthropology , sociology , philosophy , economics , biology , mathematics , psychology , demography , economic growth , geometry , neuroscience , psychoanalysis
Carrying capacity, as used by anthropologists, is a label for two different concepts: a measure of environmental productivity, and a description of equilibrial population density. Additionally, carrying capacity is sometimes defined by reference to the preservation of the balance of nature. The confusion surrounding these ideas conceals some common but dubious axioms of human ecology, which are isolated here for consideration. ROBERT E. DEWAR is Associate Professor. Department of Anthropology. University of Connecticut, Storrs. CT 06268.