ABSTRACT
Paleodemography, or the study of past population dynamics, should be and often has been an important component of bioarchaeology. Studies of population structure provide ways to evaluate the contributions and impacts of past behaviors, social structure, economics, and environment on human life and well being, with the relationships between past behavior and biology being a principal concern of bioarchaeology. The application of paleodemography in bioarchaeological studies has not been consistent through time, however, for a number of reasons. These reasons include the facts that many demographic methods have not been easy to translate to archaeological skeletal samples and that many bioarchaeologists have been ignorant of available methodologies. This chapter traces the history of paleodemography within bioarchaeology, identifying first and continued uses of various demographic techniques and tracing the underlying mathematical threads common to diverse approaches. This history also seeks to evaluate criticisms of and continuing problems in paleodemography from both outside and within the field.
