The study of populations nowadays evidently needs to be reconstituted on new conceptual and methodological grounds, so as to gradually approximate the way in which basic associations and life communities are built. This book is an important step in this direction, since its main argument is that demography must necessarily include an anthropological perspective. In addition to providing the reader with a rich source for exploring contemporary developments within demographic theory, complemented with exhaustive empirical evidence, it also offers an innovative approach to population issues by addressing them with the help of concepts such as growing up, reaching adulthood, migrations and, finally, inevitable bio-social processes like aging.