Indigenous Peoples and Demography

Per Axelsson is a Senior Researcher of the Centre for Sami Research at Umeå University, Sweden and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow. His current research focus on a longitudinal study of colonization, state and the health of Indigenous Peoples in Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, 1850-2000. Recent publications include Global Environmental Change, Global Health Action and Dynamis. He co-chairs the network of Family/Demography within the European Social Science History Association.

“This interesting collection looks at changes in population studies and examines indigeneity in contexts as different as Australia and Norway. It is particularly valuable with respect to two broad geographic categories: countries originally settled by British colonists, and states in northern Europe… the study of categorization and enumeration offers valuable insights on how ethnic boundaries are established, and how--inevitably--they are challenged and contested.”  ·  Choice“Using historical and demographical evidence, the contributors explore the creation and validity of categories for enumerating indigenous populations, the use and misuse of ethnic markers, micro-demographic investigations, and demographic databases, and thereby show how the situation varies substantially between countries.”  ·  International Journal of Anthropology“Taken as a whole, [this volume] offers a truly remarkable contribution to the field of indigenous demography. From the content point of view, this is an outstanding example of a dialog between demography, history, and anthropology in the amount of statistical data and analytical synthesis offered… Given the diversity of geographical approach, this volume will be of great interest to specialists in virtually any field of social sciences, politics, and economics.”  ·  Sibirica“As a fascinating set of accounts of the construction of ethnicity and indigeneity among (largely) historical census-takers in (largely) northern populations, it is a compelling read.”  ·  Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

• List of Figures, Maps and, TablesAcknowledgementsIntroductionPer Axelsson and Peter SköldChapter 1. Fractional Identities: the Political Arithmetic of Aboriginal VictoriansLen Smith, Janet McCalman, Ian Anderson, Sandra Smith, Joanne Evans, Gavan McCarthy and Jane BeerChapter 2. Building Ethnic Boundaries in New Zealand: Representations of Maori Identity in the CensusTahu Kukutai Chapter 3. Counting Indians: Census Categories in Late Colonial and Early Republican Spanish AmericaSteinar A. SaetherChapter 4. The Construction of Life Tables for the American Indian Population at the Turn of the Twentieth CenturyJ. David Hacker and Michael HainesChapter 5. The Aboriginal Population and the 1891 Census of CanadaMichelle Hamilton and Kris InwoodChapter 6. ‘In the national registry, all people are equal’ - Sami in Swedish statistical sourcesPer AxelssonChapter 7. The Registers of the ‘Sami tax’ from 1600 to 1750, and their Usefulness for Reconstructing Population Development and SettlementLars Ivar HansenChapter 8. Viewing Ethnicity From The Perspectives of The Individuals and Households – Finnmark During the Last Part of The Nineteenth CenturyHilde L. JåstadChapter 9.. ‘Finn in Flux’: ‘finn’ as a Designation in Norwegian Population Censuses of the Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesBjørg EvjenChapter 10. Testing and Constructing Ethnicity Variables in Late 19th Century CensusesGunnar ThorvaldsenChapter 11.  Out of the Backwater? Prospects for Contemporary Sami Demography in NorwayTorunn PettersenChapter 12. Indigenous Household Structure And Economy Among Lake Essei Iakuts 1926/27: The Mystery Of The Magnate Reindeer HerdersDavid G. AndersonChapter 13. Ethnodemographics and Identity of Indigenous People in the Central Taimyr LowlandsJohn ZikerChapter 14. Russian Legal Concepts And Indigenous Peoples DemographySergey V. SokolovskiyChapter 15. Ethnic Identity and Indigenous Populations in the Demographic Sources of the Eastern Baltic Littoral: The Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesAndrejs PlakansChapter 16. Who are the British?John MacInnesEpilogue: From Indigenous Demographics to an Indigenous DemographyPer Axelsson, Peter Sköld, John P. Ziker and David G. AndersonIndex