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Article: Demographic transition in a hunter-gatherer population: the Tiwi case, 1929-1996.
- Article from:
- Australian Aboriginal Studies
- Article date:
- March 22, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Populations that have been isolated for extended periods and that have a well-documented contact history are rare and those for which there is reasonable demographic information are even rarer. This paper examines the evidence for demographic transition in what is one of the better documented such population isolates.
In Australia there have been three known population isolates, all on islands. The largest isolate was the 4,000 or so people who made up the population of Tasmania at any one time and who were completely cut off from all external contact for at least 10,000 years. Unfortunately, however, there is no detailed information on the demographic structure ...