ABSTRACT

This chapter demonstrates that there are reasonable grounds for continuing to study in human societies the hypothesis, developed through animal research that populations tend toward adjustment of their numbers to the carrying capacity of the environment. It is proposed that the delay in homeostatic response is specific to "open" societies, those defined by high levels of interchange with other geographic areas, because in such settings there is difficulty in restoring realistic cultural assumptions about quantity of resources once these have been disrupted. It is being suggested that the very openness of most parts of the European system delayed corrective responses to population pressure significantly longer than is observed in societies where resources are gauged with steadier yardsticks. Observation and theoretical considerations suggest that "open" societies are most resistant to restoration of the absolute scarcity assumption or to acceptance of other values that would motivate a conservative approach to resources.