316 CHAPTER 13 | Human Adaptation to a Changing Worldover 6.8 billion and still climbing, we are reaching the car-
rying capacity of the earth (Figure 13.5). India and China
alone have well over 1 billion inhabitants each. And popu-
lation growth is still rapid in South Asia, which is expected
to become even more densely populated in the early 21st
century. Population growth threatens to increase the scale
of hunger, poverty, and pollution—and the many prob-
lems associated with these issues.
While human population growth must be curtailed,
government-sponsored programs to do so have posed
new health and ethical problems. For example, China’s
much-publicized “one child” policy, introduced in 1979
to control its soaring population growth, led to sharp
upward trends in sex-selective abortions, female infan-
ticide, and female infant mortality due to abandonment
and neglect. The resulting imbalance in China’s male
and female populations is referred to as the “missing
girl gap.” One study reports that China’s male-to- female
sex ratio has become so distorted that 111 million men
will not be able to find a wife. Government regulations
softened slightly in the 1990s, when it became legal for
rural couples to have a second child if their first was
a girl—and if they paid a fee. Millions of rural cou-
ples have circumvented regulations by not registering
births—resulting in millions of young people who do
not “officially” exist.^16megacorporations, and very wealthy elites are using their
powers to rearrange the emerging world system to their
own competitive advantage. When such power relation-
ships undermine the well-being of others, we may speak of
structural violence—physical and/or psychological harm
(including repression, environmental destruction, poverty,
hunger, illness, and premature death) caused by exploit-
ative and unjust social, political, and economic systems.
As we saw in Chapter 11, health disparities, or dif-
ferences in the health status between the wealthy elite and
the poor in stratified societies, are nothing new. Global-
ization has expanded and intensified structural violence,
leading to enormous health disparities among individuals,
communities, and even states. Medical anthropologists
have examined how structural violence leads not only to
unequal access to treatment but also to the likelihood of
contracting disease through exposure to malnutrition,
crowded conditions, and toxins.Population Size and Health
At the time of the speciation events of early human evolu-
tionary history, population size was relatively small com-
pared to what it is today. With human population size atYearBillions of people
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1BCE AD>5
million2.5
million500,000 40,000 20,000 8500 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 500 1000 1500 2000Figure 13.5 Human population size grew at a relatively steady pace until the industrial revolution,
when a geometric pattern of growth began. Since that time, human population size has been
doubling at an alarming rate. The earth’s natural resources will not be able to accommodate ever-
increasing human population if the rates of consumption seen in Western industrialized nations,
particularly in the United States, persist.structural violence Physical and/or psychological harm (in-
cluding repression, environmental destruction, poverty, hunger,
illness, and premature death) caused by exploitative and unjust
social, political, and economic systems.
health disparity A difference in the health status between the
wealthy elite and the poor in stratified societies.(^16) Bongaarts, J. (1998). Demographic consequences of declining fertility.
Science 282, 419.
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