Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology. Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation.

Part I. Anthropological Demography and Human Ecological Behavioural Ecology: 1. Two solitudes; 2. Why bother?; 3. Anthropological demography: culture, not biology; 4. Human evolutionary ecology: biology, not culture; 5. Discussion: cultural and biological reductionism; Part II. Reconciling Anthropological Demography and Human Evolutionary Ecology: 6. Common ground; 7. Demographic strategies; 8. Reproductive interests: social interactions, life effort and demographic strategies: a Rendille example; 9. Sepaade as male mating effort; 10. Rendille primogeniture as a parenting strategy; 11. Summary: demographic strategies as links between culture and biology; Part III. Mating Effort and Demographic Strategies: 12. Mating effort as demographic strategies; 13. Cross-cultural mating strategies: polygyny and bridewealth, monogamy and dowry; 14. Bridewealth and the matter of choice; 15. Demographic and cultural change: values and morals; 16. The end of the sepaade tradition: behavioral tracking and moral change; Part IV. Demographic Strategies as Parenting Effort: 17. Parenting effort and the theory of allocation; 18. The Trivers-Willard model and parenting strategies; 19. Parity-specific parental strategies: the case of primogeniture; 20. Local resource competition model; 21. Infanticide and child abandonment: accentuating the negative; 22. Adoption in modern China: stressing the positive; 23. Summary: culture and biology in parental effort; Part V. Future Research Directions: 24. The central place of sex in anthropology and evolution; 25. Male sexuality, education and high risk behavior; 26. Final ground: demographic transitions; Part VI. References Cited.