Solar activity has important effect on terrestrial environment in which human population lives. Long-term and short-term periodicities in solar activity had influence on secular climate changes, little ice ages and climatic optima. The article summarizes briefly the results and methods of historical climatology. The text resumes the methods of research of the solar activity variation over the last 1500 years, through physical methods as well as through preserved written sources. The basic mechanisms of the effects of solar activity on terrestrial environment and human population are explained as well as the predictions of the upcoming solar activity. This may indicate that we are currently at the beginning of another long-term solar minimum., Kateřina Podolská., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The transition between foraging and farming represents one of the most discussed topics in human history. This study deals with demographic aspects of farming spread in Central Europe (6th millenium BC). On the theoretical and empirical level and on the basis of demographic modelling, we argue that both south-eastern farmers and local foragers participated on the establishment of farming communities in Central Europe., Patrik Galeta, Jaroslav Brůžek., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The present study focuses on the problem of the development of mortality in the parish of St. Anne in Cheb (Eger) in the years 1787-1901. On the basis of excertped parish registers of the dead were ascertained the numbers of dead, the gross mortality rate, average life duration, mortality of newborns and children, aseasonal oscillations, and also the analysis of the causes of death was realized., Jana Kolouchová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd, whose theory is discussed in the present article, are convinced that culture is, also from the point of view of biological evolutionary theory, an adaptive system that, however, could lead also to maladaptive behavior. The authors consider the present day decrease (or, rather, downswing) of fertility to be a prominent example of maladaptive behavior. The present study discusses this theory from the point of view of historical demography and cultural history. It discusses the suitability of the criteria of maladaptation and stressed the fact that the decrease of fertility can be considered, until certain degree, an adaptive behavior (increasing the fitness)., Jan Horský., and Obsahuje bibliografii
In this study, the demographic profile of the Roman population buried in Gerulata, southwest Slovakia, is reconstructed. Our research is based on those human skeletal remains, which were anthropologically examined and thus allowed us to partially estimate the mortality pattern of this population, chronologically dated between the 1st and 4th centuries CE. By means of current demographic methods the basic mortality parameters from the estimated life table are compared with different population models, with pacific regard to the identification of potential biases, two of which - the general infant under-representation and the unbalanced sex ration - are further discussed., Lucia Hlavenková, Jaroslava Schmidtová, Tomáš Zeman., and Obsahuje odkazy pod čarou