A Population History of the Huron-Petun, A.D. 500-1650 (Studies in North American Indian History)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: February 29, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 312
ISBN-13: 9780521440301
Subjects: Indigenous peoples; Population & demography; Social history; c 1700 to c 1800; c 1800 to c 1900; Demography; Native Americans - Northeast; History; History - General History; History: World; USA; Native American; United States - General; History / Native American; Population; Social conditions; Wyandot Indians
Description: "A population History of the Huron-Petun, A.D. 500-1650 reconstructs the population history of the Wendat-Tionontate (Huron-Petun) people using archaeological, paleodemographic, historical, and epidemiological research. This book argues that the Wendat-Tionontate occupied southern Ontario for thousands of years and that maize agriculture was gradually adopted by groups who were not experiencing population pressure, but who were simply interested in supplementing their hunting, gathering, and fishing diet with a reliable food that could also be stored to avert winter famine deaths. The book demonstrates that gradual population growth followed the adoption of maize agriculture, but that rapid population growth did not occur until the fourteenth century, encouraged by the colonization of new lands. The book also documents and explains why epidemic diseases of European origin did not occur among the Wendat-Tionontate and other Native peoples of eastern North America until the 1630s."--Jacket.