An expansion of the demographic transition model: the dynamic link between agricultural productivity and population

Hopfenberg, Russell

doi:10.1080/14888386.2014.973904

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Typically, fossil fuels are also a secondary form of solar energy, embodied in organisms via the food chain, and, at death, The natural successors of hunter-gatherers were Agrarian societies, which are also the object of this study. The first agricultural societies exhibited a structural shift in both dimensions of the energy paradigm around 12,000 BC, as most anthropological records demonstrate [13][14][15][16]. Regarding the shift in the dominant pattern of harvesting energy from nature, the shift involved the transformation of natural land, which sustained primitive societies in a rather random biogeophysical pattern, into arable and grazing land, where crops could be planted and harvested at will and also human labor could be utilized to maximize the yield of biochemically stored solar energy.…”

Section: Energy Paradigm Structural Change and Social Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In direct relation to the large-scale introduction of fossil fuels in human societies, the energy state of agriculture at each energy paradigm has been a subject of discussion for numerous researchers [11][12][13][14][15][16]23,30,39,40,47,48]. The core distinguishing feature though is what identifies the phase change, i.e., the shift from agrarian societies to industrial societies.…”

Section: Energy Paradigm Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

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Energy and the Macrodynamics of Agrarian Societies

Karakatsanis

Mamassis

2023

Land

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For the present work, we utilized Leslie White’s anthropological theory of cultural evolutionism as a theoretical benchmark for econometrically assessing the macrodynamics of energy use in agrarian societies that constituted the human civilization’s second energy paradigm between 12,000 BC and 1800 AC. As White’s theory views a society’s ability to harness and control energy from its environment as the primary function of culture, we may classify the evolution of human civilizations in three phases according to their energy paradigm, defined as the dominant pattern of energy harvesting from nature. In this context, we may distinguish three energy paradigms so far: hunting–gathering, agriculture, and fossil fuels. Agriculture, as humanity’s energy paradigm for ~14,000 years, essentially comprises a secondary form of solar energy that is biochemically transformed by photosynthetic life (plants and land). Based on this property, we model agrarian societies with similar principles to natural ecosystems. Just like natural ecosystems, agrarian societies receive abundant solar energy input but also have limited land ability to transform and store them biochemically. As in natural ecosystems, this constraint is depicted by the carrying capacity emerging biophysically from the limiting factor. Hence, the historical dynamics of agrarian societies are essentially reduced to their struggle to maximize energy use by maximizing the area and productivity of fertile land –in the role of a solar energy transformation hub– mitigating their limiting factor. Such an evolutionary forcing introduced technical upgrades, like the leverage of domesticated livestock power as a multiplier of the caloric value harvested by arable and grazing land combined. According to the above, we tested the econometric performance of four selected dynamic maps used extensively in ecology to reproduce humanity’s energy harvesting macrodynamics between 10,000 BC and 1800 AC: (a) the logistic map, (b) the logistic growth map, (c) a lower limiting case of the Hassel map that yields the Ricker map, and (d) a higher limiting case of the Hassel map that yields the Beverton–Holt map. Following our results, we discuss thoroughly our framework’s major elaborations on social hierarchy and competition as mechanisms for allocating available energy in society, as well as the related future research and econometric modeling challenges.

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Section: Energy Paradigm Structural Change and Social Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Energy Paradigm Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Energy and the Macrodynamics of Agrarian Societies

Karakatsanis

Mamassis

2023

Land

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“…Owing to any population's intrinsic capacity to increase (Brown, 1991), and in the absence of other factors constraining population growth (e.g. predation or disease), increases in food supply will trigger population growth (Hopfenberg, 2014). Arguably, natural limits on food supply, interacting with other variables, notably nomadism, kept human numbers largely in check for all of human existence until HGs developed DR systems, intensified food production creating surpluses, and became more sedentary (Layton et al, 1991).…”

Section: Population Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hunter-gatherer land management in the human break from ecological sustainability

Feeney

2019

The Anthropocene Review

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Evidence that human societies built on agricultural subsistence have been inherently ecologically unsustainable highlights the value in exploring whether any pre-agricultural subsistence approaches were ecologically sustainable or nearly so. The land management practices of some hunter-gatherer societies have been portrayed as sustainable, even beneficial. Research suggests such practices may fruitfully inform contemporary land management. As a human subsistence foundation, however, they may not have been ecologically sustainable. Figuring centrally in the late Pleistocene shift from immediate-return to delayed-return hunting and gathering, they enabled population growth, helped make possible the development of agriculture, and appear to have caused early environmental degradation. Consistent with this argument is research locating the origins of the Anthropocene near the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, as societies were taking greater control of food production. It appears then that immediate-return hunting and gathering, which involved little or no land management, was the human lifeway most closely approaching ecological sustainability. Wider recognition of this idea would assist in understanding and addressing today’s ecological challenges.

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Letter to the Editor

Ebrahimi Sarindizaj,

Khorsandi

2024

Science of The Total Environment

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An expansion of the demographic transition model: the dynamic link between agricultural productivity and population

Cited by 5 publications

References 17 publications

Energy and the Macrodynamics of Agrarian Societies

Energy and the Macrodynamics of Agrarian Societies

Hunter-gatherer land management in the human break from ecological sustainability

Letter to the Editor

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