The Population of Kosrae at Contact

Ritter, Philip L. (December 1981). "The Population of Kosrae at Contact" (PDF). Micronesica. 17 (1–2): 11–28. ISSN 0026-279X.

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Abstract: This paper focuses on the contact population of Kosrae, the easternmost island of the Caroline chain. The historical material concerning Kosrae is sufficient to allow a fairly careful evaluation of the contact population estimates. The most important source of information consists of the explorer Liitke's attempt to enumerate the adults of the various districts of the island. By determining and correcting for the likely errors in his count , it is possible to derive a range within which the contact population must have fallen. The result s suggest that most estimates of the Kosraen population at contact tended to be low rather than high , and it appears that there was considerable depopulation in the thirty years between contact and the first missionary censuses. Nevertheless, Kosrae was sparsely populated in comparison to other similarly sized islands. This situation is partially explained by evidence that there was considerable depopulation shortly before European contact. This case illustrate s that one cannot assume that any specific pre-contact Pacific population was characterized by either population equilibrium or a tendency toward an optimum size.