Chapter 2 discusses the changes in habitation or human geography, contextualizing the idea of a sparsely populated region with in fact great variation, from large coastal cities down to the village level. The chapter illustrates that even villages close to each other and with similar economic or other backgrounds can come to vary vastly, depending on factors that are not accessible within a pure demographic context, and questions the use of a sparsely populated area assumption, which may make areas seem unitary in their development.