Population Control

[JesusA (imported)]

A book which I have been trying to obtain through interlibrary loan (and may some day finally receive) is Moriori: A People Rediscovered by Michael King (Auckland, NZ: Penguin, 1989). I have found King’s book far too briefly quoted in several, more recent, books.

Jared Diamond, in his Guns, Germs, and Steel states, “With no other accessible islands to colonize, the Moriori had to remain in the Chathams, and to learn how to get along with each other. They did so by renouncing war, and they reduced potential conflicts from overpopulation by castrating some male infants (p. 56). The result was a small, unwarlike population with simple technology and weapons, and without strong leadership or organization.”

John H. Chambers, in his A Traveller’s History of New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands (Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2004) credits King for his statement that , “To prevent overpopulation and famine, they castrated some male children. (p. 140)” Chambers also give some background on the geography. The Moriori inhabited the Chatham Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Islands), over 500 miles east of the South Island of New Zealand. The islands total less than 400 square miles and were discovered and first occupied around 1500. They have few natural resources and the new inhabitants lost many of the cultural traits that they had originally brought with them, including both the knowledge and materials to build boats to retain contact with New Zealand. They were next contacted by British explorers on the HMS Chatham in 1791 and whalers and sealers began using the islands around 1800. An invasion by Maori tribesmen from New Zealand in 1835 killed most of the 2,000, or so, Moriori and only about 160 were alive in 1880. (The Maori ate most of them!) The last Moriori speaker died in 1900 and the last full-blood Moriori died in 1933. The population of the islands today is about 600. The surviving mixed-blood (with Maori & European ancestry) Moriori commissioned King to write his history of the island and its people.

Eric F. Lambin, in his book The Middle Path: Avoiding Environmental Catastrophe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007) uses the Moriori as an example of a pre-modern people that had managed to attain a population in balance with its environment through the castration of a sufficient number of young boys to maintain a sustainable number. (p. 33)

.

[transward (imported)]

A book which I have been trying to obtain through interlibrary loan (and may some day finally receive) is Moriori: A People Rediscovered by Michael King (Auckland, NZ: Penguin, 1989). I have found King’s book far too briefly quoted in several, more recent, books.

Jared Diamond, in his Guns, Germs, and Steel states, “With no other accessible islands to colonize, the Moriori had to remain in the Chathams, and to learn how to get along with each other. They did so by renouncing war, and they reduced potential conflicts from overpopulation by castrating some male infants (p. 56). The result was a small, unwarlike population with simple technology and weapons, and without strong leadership or organization.”

John H. Chambers, in his A Traveller’s History of New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands (Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2004) credits King for his statement that , “To prevent overpopulation and famine, they castrated some male children. (p. 140)” Chambers also give some background on the geography. The Moriori inhabited the Chatham Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Islands), over 500 miles east of the South Island of New Zealand. The islands total less than 400 square miles and were discovered and first occupied around 1500. They have few natural resources and the new inhabitants lost many of the cultural traits that they had originally brought with them, including both the knowledge and materials to build boats to retain contact with New Zealand. They were next contacted by British explorers on the HMS Chatham in 1791 and whalers and sealers began using the islands around 1800. An invasion by Maori tribesmen from New Zealand in 1835 killed most of the 2,000, or so, Moriori and only about 160 were alive in 1880. (The Maori ate most of them!) The last Moriori speaker died in 1900 and the last full-blood Moriori died in 1933. The population of the islands today is about 600. The surviving mixed-blood (with Maori & European ancestry) Moriori commissioned King to write his history of the island and its people.

Eric F. Lambin, in his book The Middle Path: Avoiding Environmental Catastrophe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007) uses the Moriori as an example of a pre-modern people that had managed to attain a population in balance with its environment through the castration of a sufficient number of young boys to maintain a sustainable number. (p. 33)

.

Wow, Amazon has one paperback copy available used for the measly price of $310.95. I guess I won't pick up a copy for light reading.

Transward

[twaddler (imported)]

Wow, Amazon has one paperback copy available used for the measly price of $310.95. I guess I won't pick up a copy for light reading.

Transward

Michigan State University has a copy available for lending. Or $40 from Penguin books NZ.