Historical Demography Introducer: W. George Lovell

In the context of the lifework of William M. Denevan, an interest in historical demography, especially the size of indigenous populations in the New World prior to Old World intrusion, began early and lasted long. Two selections from his teeming oeuvre see him grappling with the issue at mid-career and toward its close, a remarkable intellectual trajectory this collection rightly celebrates. The first selection, “Native American Populations in 1492: Recent Research and a Revised Hemispheric Estimate” (1992), sees him at his synthesizing best, revisiting New World contact scenarios he first addressed a quarter-century earlier. His 1976 hemispheric estimate of 57.3 million he adjusts downward to 53.9 million, a reduction of some 3.4 million. The second selection, “The Native Population of Amazonia in 1492 Reconsidered” (2003), again sees him ruminate on how many inhabitants the region may have supported at first contact. His astute, assiduous reckoning indicates some five to six million for Greater Amazonia and at least three to four million for the Amazon basin itself.