Radcliffe-Brown estimated that at the time of European
settlement there were about 250,000 aborigines in Australia
(1930). Applying population increase rates derived from the
Jomon Period to an original founder population of twenty and
an increase ratio of 0.0005, the aboriginal population would
have reached 250,000 in about 30,000 years. The decline of the
aboriginal population began at the end of the 18th century, with
European settlement, and destruction continued such that by the
beginning of this century the whole population was in danger of
extinction. Censuses indicate that recovery of the population
started only after 1920. Compared with other indigenous
populations which had a similar historical experience to the
aborigines, the rate of recovery of the aboriginal population
was very rapid. This surprisingly high rate was due mainly to
a growth in the population of people of mixed descent, particularly
in urban areas, rather than among the remote populations
of full-blood, which did not start to increase until somewhat later.
The development of a pan-aboriginality during the 1970s further
increased the rate of population increase, as many people of
mixed descent reasserted their aboriginal identity.
オーストラリア・アボリジニ社会再編成の人口論的考察
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