Final answer:
Demographic anthropologists focus on fertility, mortality, and migration to understand population changes and distributions.
Step-by-step explanation:
In order to understand population change and distribution, demographic anthropologists usually focus on the variables of fertility, mortality, and migration. These three fundamental demographic processes are crucial because they account for how populations within an area increase due to births (fertility), decrease due to deaths (mortality), and how they change through the movement of people into and out of the area (migration). Understanding these factors is essential for analyzing population dynamics, such as growth rates and the effects on resources, which are a key concern given the rapid expansion of the human population, especially in peripheral countries.
Birth rates, mortality rates, and migration, including both immigration and emigration, are the primary components of demographic change. Factors such as birth rates can be influenced by the population size, density, sex ratio, and age structure. For instance, a population with a large number of individuals of reproductive age is likely to show a higher birth rate. Conversely, high population density can lead to an increased mortality rate due to competition and the spread of disease.