Advances in historical ecology
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Advances in historical ecology
（The historical ecology series）
Columbia University Press, c1998
- : [pbk]
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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ISBN 9780231106320
Description
Ecology is an attempt to understand the reciprocal relationship between living and non-living elements of the earth. For years, however, the discipline either neglected the human element entirely or presumed its effect on natural ecosystems to be invariably negative. Among social scientists, notably in geography and anthropology, efforts to address this human-environment interaction have generally been criticized as deterministic and mechanistic. Bridging the divide between social and natural sciences, the contributors to this book use a more holistic perspective to explore the relationships between humans and their environment. Exploring short- and long-term local and global change 18 specialists in anthropology, geography, history, ethnobiology, and related disciplines present new perpectives on historical ecology. A broad theoretical background on the material factors central to the field is presented, such as anthropogenic fire, soils, and pathogens. A series of regional applications of this knowledge base investigates landscape transformations over time in South America, the Mississippi Delta, the Great Basin, Thailand and India.
The contributors focus on traditional societies where lands are most at risk from the incursions of complex, state-level societies. This book attempts to lay the groundwork for a more meaningful understanding of humankind's interaction with its biosphere.
- Volume
-
: [pbk] ISBN 9780231106337
Description
Ecology is an attempt to understand the reciprocal relationship between living and nonliving elements of the earth. For years, however, the discipline either neglected the human element entirely or presumed its effect on natural ecosystems to be invariably negative. Among social scientists, notably in geography and anthropology, efforts to address this human-environment interaction have been criticized as deterministic and mechanistic. Bridging the divide between social and natural sciences, the contributors to this book use a more holistic perspective to explore the relationships between humans and their environment. Exploring short- and long-term local and global change, eighteen specialists in anthropology, geography, history, ethnobiology, and related disciplines present new perspectives on historical ecology. A broad theoretical background on the material factors central to the field is presented, such as anthropogenic fire, soils, and pathogens. A series of regional applications of this knowledge base investigates landscape transformations over time in South America, the Mississippi Delta, the Great Basin, Thailand, and India.
The contributors focus on traditional societies where lands are most at risk from the incursions of complex, state-level societies. This book lays the groundwork for a more meaningful understanding of humankind's interaction with its biosphere. Scholars and environmental policymakers alike will appreciate this new critical vocabulary for grasping biocultural phenomena.
Table of Contents
Foreward, by Carole L. Crumley Human and Material Factors in Historical Ecology Historical Ecology: Premises and Postulates, by William L. Balee Ecological History and Historical Ecology: Diachronic Modeling Versus Historical Explanation, by Neil L. Whitehead A Historical-Ecological Perspective on Epidemic Disease, by Linda A. Newson Forged in Fire: History, Land, and Anthropogenic Fire, by Stephen J. Pyne Diachronic Ecotones and Anthropogenic Landscapes in Amazonia: Contesting the Consciousness of Conservation, by Darrell A. Posey Metaphor and Metaphorism: Some Thoughts on Environmental Metahistory, by Elizabeth Graham Regional Research and Landscape Analyses in Historical Ecology The Rat That Ate Louisiana: Aspects of Historical Ecology in the Mississippi River Delta, by Tristam R. Kidder Cultural, Human, and Historical Ecology in the Great Basin: Fifty Years of Ideas About Ten Thousand Years of Prehistory, by Robert L. Bettinger Ancient and Modern Hunter-Gatherers of Lowland South America: An Evolutionary Problem, by Anna C. Roosevelt Potential Versus Actual Vegetation: Human Behavior in a Landscape Medium, by Ted Gragson Domestication as a Historical and Symbolic Process: Wild Gardens and Cultivated Forests in the Ecuadorian Amazon, by Laura Rival Independent Yet Interdependent "Isode": The Historical Ecology of Traditional Piaroa Settlement Pattern, by Stanford Zent Whatever Happened to the Stone Age? Steel Tools and Yanomami Historical Ecology, by R. Brian Ferguson Missionary Activity and Indian Labor in the Upper Rio Negro of Brazil, 1680--1980: A Historical-Ecological Approach, by Janet M. Chernela Cultural Persistence and Environmental Change: The Otomi of the Valle del Mezquital, by Elinor G. K. Melville The Great Cow Explosion in Rajasthan, by Carol Henderson The Historical Ecology of Thailand: Increasing Thresholds of Human, by Environmental Impact from Prehistory to the Present Leslie E. Sponsel Epilogue, by T. R. Kidder and William Balee
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