Page 183 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV
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1484 berkshire encyclopedia of world history












            of Chinese gentry women in his tale. Perhaps these omis-
            sions, as well as the more fanciful elements in the Trav-             Population
            els involving cannibalism and bizarre sexual behavior,
            can be blamed not on Marco Polo, but on the chronicler  opulation growth and decline affect human history
            of his adventures, Rusticello. In the end, whether or not Peverywhere and always, sometimes making life bet-
            Marco Polo ever did make it to the Khan’s capital or  ter, sometimes making it worse. Basic instincts and
            serve as a Mongol official, is not as important as the fact  human wishes promote births, and people almost always
            that his  Travels inspired generations of Europeans to  try to escape death. But individual choices are only part
            look beyond their borders and to eventually search for  of what balances births with deaths and determines the
            routes to the riches he described.                  actual sizes of human populations. Availability of food
                                                                and exposures to lethal disease are other obvious factors;
                                            Robert John Perrins
                                                                so is the frequency of death from predatory animals or
            See also China                                      human violence. Moral rules, marriage customs, and the
                                                                costs and gains of child raising also affect family size. In
                                                                addition, migration from one community to another
                               Further Reading                  reasserts human populations continually, enlarging some
            Gernet, J. (1962). Daily life in China on the eve of the Mongol invasion,  and diminishing other groups. Finally, new healing skills
              1250–1276. (H. M.Wright,Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford Univer-
              sity Press.                                       can sometimes prolong life, as happened worldwide after
            Hart, H. H. (1967). Marco Polo:Venetian adventurer. Norman, OK: Uni-  1950; and birth control pills lowered birth rates even
              versity of Oklahoma Press.
            Humble, R. (1975). Marco Polo. London: George Weidenfeld and  more recently.The interplay of these and still other factors
              Nicolson.                                         remains far too complex for anyone to decipher fully.
            Marsden, W. (Trans.).(1997). Marco Polo: The travels. Ware, Hertsford-  Increase and decrease in membership of small local
              shire: Wordsworth Editions. (Original work published 1818)
            Moule, A. C., & Pelliot, P. (1976). Marco Polo: The description of the  communities is what people actually notice, and when
              world (Vols. 1–2). New York: AMS Press.           changes are swift and obvious, as is true in most rural
            Olschki, L. (1960). Marco Polo’s Asia: An introduction to his description
              of the world called ‘Il Milione’. (John A. Scott,Trans.). Berkeley: Uni-  communities today, radical disruptions of old ways of life
              versity of California Press.                      ensue.Whole villages and small towns are disappearing;
            Pelliot, P. (1959). Notes of Marco Polo (Vols. 1–2). Paris: Impression  cities multiply and the texture of human daily life changes
              Nationale.
            Rossabi, M. (1988). Khubilai Khan: His life and times. Berkeley: Uni-  in ways that may turn out to be unsustainable.
              versity of California Press.                        Throughout most of the past people took the circum-
            Wood, F. (1996). Did Marco Polo go to China? Boulder, CO: Westview
              Press.                                            stances into which they were born more or less for grant-
            Yule, H. (Trans. & Ed.). (1921). The book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian  ed and had no notion of how growth or decrease in their
              concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East (Vols. 1–2). London:  local community was immersed in larger patterns of popu-
              John Murray.
                                                                lation changes.To be sure, governments sometimes made
                                                                efforts to list taxpayers, and historians have used surviving
                                                                fragments of tax lists to estimate the total populations of
                                                                the Roman and Chinese empires around the beginning of
                 Popular Culture                                the common era at about 60 millions each. But such evi-

                                                                dence is fragmentary, and modern estimates of world
            See Alcohol; Art—Overview; Consumerism; Dance and   population rest on guesswork about average density of for-
            Drill; Dress; Drugs; Festivals; Games; Globalization; Lei-  agers and of farmers in different climates and landscapes
            sure; Literature and Women; Mass Media; Modernity;  around the earth. Anything like reliable census figures for
            Music—Genres; Music and Political Protest; Postmod-  whole countries start only about two hundred years ago
            ernism; Sex and Sexuality; Sports                   and became (almost) worldwide only after 1950.
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