Mats Widgren - Böcker

The East African Rift Valley is home to specialized agricultural regimes - their apparent isolation masking the degree of exchange between communities.This book reveals complex agricultural methods and dynamic farming strategies which evolved long before colonial intervention or recent development projects. These indigenous systems created spectacular landscapes, with terrace walls to conserve the soiland hill-furrow irrigation to supplement low or seasonal rainfall, thus allowing intensive exploitation of all usable land. Mulch or animal manure were applied to boost fertility on regularly planted fields. Labour, communal tasks and the allocation of land and water required social organisation and the use of sanctions. The studies examine 'islands' where intensive devices and integrated systems have been developed and maintained.Sometimes they are in relatively isolated and arid localities but are able to support surprising concentrations of population. These islands of intensive local cultivation are surrounded by a low-density 'sea' of livestock-herdersor extensive cultivators. Islands in the Eastern Rift Valley and flanking highlands - Iraqw in Tanzania, Marakwet in Kenya and Konso in Ethiopia - are illustrated by geographers and anthropologists applying an historical perspective. The archaeological example is of Engaruka in a dry stretch of the Rift in northern Tanzania where a cluster of nucleated villages with skilfully engineered irrigation thrived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.Published in association with The British Institute in Eastern AfricaNorth America: Ohio U Press; Uganda: Fountain Publishers; Kenya: EAEP

This book is the first comprehensive, global treatment of landesque capital, a widespread concept used to understand anthropogenic landscapes that serve important economic, social, and ritual purposes. Spanning the disciplines of anthropology, human ecology, geography, archaeology, and history, chapters combine theoretical rigor with in-depth empirical studies of major landscape modifications from ancient to contemporary times. They assess not only degradation but also the social, political, and economic institutions and contexts that make sustainability possible. Offering tightly edited, original contributions from leading scholars, this book will have a lasting influence on the study long-term human-environment relations in the human and natural sciences.

This book is the first comprehensive, global treatment of landesque capital, a widespread concept used to understand anthropogenic landscapes that serve important economic, social, and ritual purposes. Spanning the disciplines of anthropology, human ecology, geography, archaeology, and history, chapters combine theoretical rigor with in-depth empirical studies of major landscape modifications from ancient to contemporary times. They assess not only degradation but also the social, political, and economic institutions and contexts that make sustainability possible. Offering tightly edited, original contributions from leading scholars, this book will have a lasting influence on the study long-term human-environment relations in the human and natural sciences.

Intresset för världshistoria är större än på länge - både bland den läsande allmänheten och bland forskare. Globaliseringen har bidragit till att historiker kommit ut ur den fixering vid det nationella som kännetecknat deras forskning ända sedan 1800-talet. Men med den nya globala arenan för forskning följer också nya metodproblem. Det är hög tid att de världshistoriskt orienterade forskarna tar sig an de här problemen och utvecklar metoder som gör att de kan arbeta med samma höga kvalitetskrav som annan historieforskning. I Methods in World History adresseras utförligt en serie metodproblem, och författarna ger förslag på hur dessa ska lösas. Här diskuteras bland annat vår tids unikt stora tillgång till helt nya typer av källmaterial, och hur det krävs en medvetenhet hos historiker om dessa källors förtjänster och fällor. Även språkliga och kulturella skillnader måste analyseras systematiskt när forskarna söker efter de återkommande dragen i den mänskliga historien. Dessutom måste världshistorikerna ständigt vara uppmärksamma på de starka ideologiska intressen som har en tendens att snedvrida de vetenskapliga resultaten. Detta och ett flertal andra metodproblem diskuteras i Methods in World History, där det finns mycket att hämta både för forskaren och för studenten, liksom för den historieintresserade läsaren som vill skärpa sitt kritiska förhållningssätt till världshistorisk forskning.