Page 466 - Essencials of Sociology

A Planet with No Space for Enjoying Life? 439

The image still haunts me. There stood Celia, age 30, her distended stomach
visible proof that her thirteenth child was on its way. Her oldest was only 14 years old! Learning
A mere boy by our standards, he had already gone as far in school as he ever would. Each Objectives
morning, he joined the men to work in the fields. Each evening around twilight, I saw him
After you have read this chapter,
return home, exhausted from hard labor in the subtropical sun.
you should be able to:
I was living in Colima, Mexico, and Celia and her husband Angel had invited me for din-
ner. Their home clearly reflected the family’s poverty. A thatched hut consisting of only a single 14.1 Contrast the views of the
room served as home for all fourteen members of the family. At night, the parents and younger New Malthusians and Anti-
Malthusians on population
children crowded into a double bed, while the eldest boy slept in a hammock. As in many homes
growth and the food supply;
in the village, the other children slept on mats spread on
explain why people are
the dirt floor—despite the crawling scorpions. There stood Celia, starving. (p. 439)
The home was meagerly furnished. It had only a “
gas stove, a table, and a cabinet where Celia stored age 30, her distended 14.2 Explain why the Least
Industrialized Nations
her few cooking utensils and clay dishes. There were stomach visible proof have so many children,
no closets; clothes hung on pegs in the walls. There also consequences of rapid
were no chairs, not even one. I was used to the poverty that her thirteenth child population growth,
in the village, but this really startled me. The family was on its way. ” population pyramids,
was too poor to afford even a single chair. the three demographic
Celia beamed as she told me how much she looked forward to the birth of her next child. Could variables, and problems
she really mean it? It was hard to imagine that any woman would want to be in her situation. in forecasting population
growth. (p. 446)
Yet Celia meant every word. She was as full of delighted anticipation as she had been
with her first child—and with all the others in between. 14.3 Summarize the development
How could Celia have wanted so many children—especially when she lived in such of cities, the process of
poverty? This question bothered me. I couldn’t let it go until I understood why. urbanization, U.S. urban
patterns, and the rural
This chapter helps to provide an answer.
rebound. (p. 455)
Compare the models of
14.4
Population in Global Perspective urban growth. (p. 462)
Discuss alienation and
14.5
community, types of people
Celia’s story takes us to the heart of demography, the study of the size, composition, who live in the city, the norm
growth (or decline), and distribution of human populations. It brings us face to face of noninvolvement and the
with the question of whether we are doomed to live in a world so filled with people that diffusion of responsibility.
there will be little space for anybody. Will our planet be able to support its growing pop- (p. 464)
ulation? Or are chronic famine and mass starvation the sorry fate of most earthlings? Explain the effects
14.6
Let’s look at how concern about population growth began. of suburbanization,
disinvestment and
deindustrialization, and
A Planet with No Space for Enjoying Life? the potential of urban
revitalization. (p. 468)
The story begins with the lowly potato. When the Spanish conquistadores found that
people in the Andes Mountains ate this vegetable, which was unknown in Europe, they
brought some home with them. At first, Europeans viewed the potato with suspicion,
Contrast the views of
but gradually it became the main food of the lower classes. With a greater abundance of 14.1
the New Malthusians and Anti-
food, fertility increased, and the death rate dropped. Europe’s population soared, almost
Malthusians on population growth
doubling during the 1700s (McKeown 1977; McNeill 1999).
and the food supply; explain why
Thomas Malthus (1766–1834), an English economist, became alarmed at this surg-
people are starving.
ing growth, seeing it as a sign of doom. In 1798, he wrote An Essay on the Principle of
Population (1798/1926). In this book, which became world famous, Malthus proposed
what became known as the Malthus theorem. He argued that although population demography the study of the
grows geometrically (from 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 and so forth), the food supply increases size, composition, growth (or
only arithmetically (from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 and so on). This meant, he claimed, that if shrinkage), and distribution of
human populations
births go unchecked, the population will outstrip its food supply.