Published:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021
Published in:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (2021) 28
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.2024150118
ISSN:
0027-8424;
1091-6490
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
SignificanceHuman populations so dominate the ecology of the planet that geologists are describing this as the Anthropocene, “the time of humans.” Therefore, understanding the ecology of our time requires understanding our growth, which multiple models have sought to explain. Here we apply a unified model of ecology to understand and summarize historic and prehistoric human populations and provide predictions that concur with some of the more complicated current methods. They reveal that in our societies, and in those of our prehuman ancestors, changes involving cultural evolution have altered fundamental ecological mechanisms, producing three great ecological discontinuities that are successively related to tools, agriculture, and control of fertility. Understanding our ecological development thus far can help guide us into our future.