This study examines the ways that states have attempted to pigeon-hole the people within their boundaries into racial, ethnic, and language categories. These attempts, whether through American efforts to divide the U.S. population into mutually exclusive racial categories, or through the Soviet system of inscribing nationality categories on internal passports, have important implications not only for people's own identities and life chances, but for national political and social processes as well. The book reviews the history of these categorizing efforts by the state, offers a theoretical...

Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology. Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation.

Nancy Riley and James McCarthy examine demography in this study from the new perspective of postmodernism, and survey its development as a field. Demography as a social science has struggled to maintain its political and academic strength. Riley and McCarthy accordingly argue for the inclusion of new methodologies and theories into the field in order to broaden and strengthen the analysis of demographic behavior. The book includes numerous examples of innovative demographic-related research, indicating how it enriches the field.

Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology. Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation.