ABSTRACT
The reconstruction of population levels and the dissection of demographic dynamics in an alpine community has both supported claims that social mechanisms may tend to restrain growth in a density dependent manner and substantiated the influence of exogenous factors that can decisively disturb the equilibrium. Population growth has become a familiar spectre, globally visible in the prevalence of people, the environmental changes they bring about, and the exponential curve that charts their increase. The peasant village often occupies the same site for generations, and fixed territorial boundaries limit the amounts of land, water, and wood which the inhabitants can use. The Swiss village of Torbel in the mountains of upper Valais offers a unique opportunity for investigating demographic processes. The largely unperceived effects of nutrition on marital fertility and on mortality ran counter to the time-tested European peasant regulators and ultimately broke their constraints.
