New Frontiers in Historical Ecology – serie

This book presents some of the most recent tools, methods and concepts in historical ecology. It introduces students and researchers to state-of-the-art techniques and showcases a wide array of methods dedicated to understanding the history of tropical landscapes. The chapters cover the detection and characterisation of archaeological features, living organisms as witnesses of past human activities, ethnoecological knowledge of ancient anthropogenic landscapes and societal impacts of historical ecology. Whilst mainly based on Amazonian experiences, the contributions aim to strengthen synergies between disciplines and to propose solutions that can be applied elsewhere in the field.

This book presents some of the most recent tools, methods and concepts in historical ecology. It introduces students and researchers to state-of-the-art techniques and showcases a wide array of methods dedicated to understanding the history of tropical landscapes. The chapters cover the detection and characterisation of archaeological features, living organisms as witnesses of past human activities, ethnoecological knowledge of ancient anthropogenic landscapes and societal impacts of historical ecology. Whilst mainly based on Amazonian experiences, the contributions aim to strengthen synergies between disciplines and to propose solutions that can be applied elsewhere in the field.

This book offers a comparative analysis of the experiences, responses, and adaptations of people to climate variability and environmental change across the Americas. It foregrounds historical ecology as a structural framework for understanding the climate change crisis throughout the region and throughout time. In recent years, Indigenous and local populations in particular have experienced climate change effects such as altered weather patterns, seasonal irregularities, flooding and drought, and difficulties relating to subsistence practices. Understanding and dealing with these challenges has drawn on peoples’ longstanding experience with climate variability and in some cases includes models of mitigation and responses that are millennia old. With contributions from specialists across the Americas, this volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies.

This book offers a comparative analysis of the experiences, responses, and adaptations of people to climate variability and environmental change across the Americas. It foregrounds historical ecology as a structural framework for understanding the climate change crisis throughout the region and throughout time. In recent years, Indigenous and local populations in particular have experienced climate change effects such as altered weather patterns, seasonal irregularities, flooding and drought, and difficulties relating to subsistence practices. Understanding and dealing with these challenges has drawn on peoples’ longstanding experience with climate variability and in some cases includes models of mitigation and responses that are millennia old. With contributions from specialists across the Americas, this volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies.

Malaria is one of the oldest recorded diseases in human history, and its 10,000-year relationship to primates can teach us why it will be one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century. In this pathbreaking book Loretta Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, anthropology, and other fields to reveal the intimate relationships between culture and environment that shape the trajectory of a parasite. She argues against the entrenched distinction between human and non-human malarias, using ethnoprimatology to develop a new understanding of cross-species exchange. She also shows how current human-environment interactions, including deforestation and development, create the potential for new forms of malaria to threaten human populations. This book is a model of interdisciplinary integration that will be essential reading in fields from anthropology and biology to public health.

Malaria is one of the oldest recorded diseases in human history, and its 10,000-year relationship to primates can teach us why it will be one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century. In this pathbreaking book Loretta Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, anthropology, and other fields to reveal the intimate relationships between culture and environment that shape the trajectory of a parasite. She argues against the entrenched distinction between human and non-human malarias, using ethnoprimatology to develop a new understanding of cross-species exchange. She also shows how current human-environment interactions, including deforestation and development, create the potential for new forms of malaria to threaten human populations. This book is a model of interdisciplinary integration that will be essential reading in fields from anthropology and biology to public health.

The legendary El Dorado—the city of gold—remains a mere legend, but astonishing new discoveries are revealing a major civilization in ancient Amazonia that was more complex than anyone previously dreamed. Scholars have long insisted that the Amazonian ecosystem placed severe limits on the size and complexity of its ancient cultures, but leading researcher Denise Schaan reverses that view, synthesizing exciting new evidence of large-scale land and resource management to tell a new history of indigenous Amazonia. Schaan also engages fundamental debates about the development of social complexity and the importance of ancient Amazonia from a global perspective. This innovative, interdisciplinary book is a major contribution to the study of human-environment relations, social complexity, and past and present indigenous societies.

The legendary El Dorado—the city of gold—remains a mere legend, but astonishing new discoveries are revealing a major civilization in ancient Amazonia that was more complex than anyone previously dreamed. Scholars have long insisted that the Amazonian ecosystem placed severe limits on the size and complexity of its ancient cultures, but leading researcher Denise Schaan reverses that view, synthesizing exciting new evidence of large-scale land and resource management to tell a new history of indigenous Amazonia. Schaan also engages fundamental debates about the development of social complexity and the importance of ancient Amazonia from a global perspective. This innovative, interdisciplinary book is a major contribution to the study of human-environment relations, social complexity, and past and present indigenous societies.

This major work of historical ecology advances the integration of research on environmental and social systems, contributing important lessons for contemporary natural resource policy and management. A diverse, international region, the Pyrenees has been characterized as a quintessential example of rural areas across Europe and North America. The authors use qualitative and quantitative methods from economics, history, anthropology, and ecological science to integrate human agency and ecology across a landscape that moved from agricultural and pastoral production to industrialization, then experienced acute depopulation, and now is becoming a focus of conservation and tourism. The book shows how today’s most pressing resource policy challenges are best illuminated by this broad, long-term understanding of humans and landscapes.

Stéphen Rostain’s book is a culmination of 25 years of research on the extensive human modification of the wetlands environment of Guiana and how it reshapes our thinking of ancient settlement in lowland South America and other tropical zones. Rostain demonstrates that populations were capable of developing intensive raised-field agriculture, which supported significant human density, and construct causeways, habitation mounds, canals, and reservoirs to meet their needs. The work is comparative in every sense, drawing on ethnology, ethnohistory, ecology, and geography; contrasting island Guiana with other wetland regions around the world; and examining millennia of pre-Columbian settlement and colonial occupation alike. Rostain’s work demands a radical rethinking of conventional wisdom about settlement in tropical lowlands and landscape management by its inhabitants over the course of millennia.

Stéphen Rostain’s book is a culmination of 25 years of research on the extensive human modification of the wetlands environment of Guiana and how it reshapes our thinking of ancient settlement in lowland South America and other tropical zones. Rostain demonstrates that populations were capable of developing intensive raised-field agriculture, which supported significant human density, and construct causeways, habitation mounds, canals, and reservoirs to meet their needs. The work is comparative in every sense, drawing on ethnology, ethnohistory, ecology, and geography; contrasting island Guiana with other wetland regions around the world; and examining millennia of pre-Columbian settlement and colonial occupation alike. Rostain’s work demands a radical rethinking of conventional wisdom about settlement in tropical lowlands and landscape management by its inhabitants over the course of millennia.

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.

The conventional wisdom says that the devolution of Classic Maya civilization occurred because its population grew too large and dense to be supported by primitive neotropical farming methods, resulting in debilitating famines and internecine struggles. Using research on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, Ford and Nigh refute this Malthusian explanation of events in ancient Central America and posit a radical alternative theory. The authors-show that ancient Maya farmers developed ingenious, sustainable woodland techniques to cultivate numerous food plants (including the staple maize);-examine both contemporary tropical farming techniques and the archaeological record (particularly regarding climate) to reach their conclusions;-make the argument that these ancient techniques, still in use today, can support significant populations over long periods of time.