Fertility, food and fever : : population, economy and environment in North and Central Sulawesi, 1600-1930 / / David Henley.

• Superior document: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; 201
• VerfasserIn: Henley, David, 1963-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands : : KITLV Press,, [2005]; ©2005
• Year of Publication: 2005
• Language: English
• Series: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; 201.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (723 pages)

Combining historical geography with historical demography, and conceived as a study in environmental history, this book examines the long-term relationship between population, economy and environment in the northern half of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Using a rich variety of Dutch historical sources, including VOC and missionary archives, it attempts to reconstruct and analyse patterns of demographic, economic and landscape change throughout this large and ecologically diverse region over a period of almost three and a half centuries. Particular attention is given to the articulation between demographic and economic growth, to levels and determinants of reproductive fertility, to changing disease environments, and to the question of agricultural sustainability and its preconditions. The results call into question some common views regarding the reasons for low population growth, and the relationship between population density and landscape change, in the Southeast Asian past.