An Essay on the Principle of Population

Chapter 3 is brief and observes the growth of population in hunting and shepherding communities. It postulates that the population in hunting societies (“the rudest state of mankind,” [12]) must necessarily be thin because their means of subsistence is scattered over a large extent of territory. Malthus believes that Native Americans (referred to as the “North American Indians” and the “savages” in the original text) are among some of the least sexually active people in the world (12). Further, he maintains that in spite of this lack of reproductive ardor, the rate of population growth still exceeds the society’s capacity to support it. In other words, the power of population growth exceeds people’s capacity to produce food even in hunting societies. With this truth established, Malthus is mainly interested in observing whether population growth can be kept in check without producing vice or misery.

The author offers to consider “The North American Indians” as a single group of people that are neither free nor equal. This is because all accounts of “savage nations” report that women in such communities are slaves to the men and are exploited worse than the poor in “civilized countries,” (12). Since the burden of population checks mostly fall upon the shoulders of the poor, the living conditions of women in these societies best reflect the conditions that keep population growth rates in check.