population regulation, ecology, and political economy in preindustrial Iceland

• Published in: American Ethnologist
• Main Author: VASEY, DANIEL E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1996
• Subjects: Arctic; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ae.1996.23.2.02a00100; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1525%2Fae.1996.23.2.02a00100; https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ae.1996.23.2.02a00100

Social controls on sex and marriage, rooted in the political economy, regulated population in preindustrial Iceland. Married women had high fertility, offset by low illegitimacy and a means prerequisite for marriage. The number of married householders in their childbearing years responded to changes in population pressure, adjusting fertility and moving the population toward about 50,000, a level determined by both the sub‐Arctic environment and the political economy, which discouraged full use of available technology. [population regulation, population and agriculture, population and environment, population and political economy, preindustrial Iceland]