The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions

The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions PDF

Author: Daniel Contreras

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2016-08-25

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1317450620

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The impacts of climate change on human societies, and the roles those societies themselves play in altering their environments, appear in headlines more and more as concern over modern global climate change intensifies. Increasingly, archaeologists and paleoenvironmental scientists are looking to evidence from the human past to shed light on the processes which link environmental and cultural change. Establishing clear contemporaneity and correlation, and then moving beyond correlation to causation, remains as much a theoretical task as a methodological one. This book addresses this challenge by exploring new approaches to human-environment dynamics and confronting the key task of constructing arguments that can link the two in concrete and detailed ways. The contributors include researchers working in a wide variety of regions and time periods, including Mesoamerica, Mongolia, East Africa, the Amazon Basin, and the Island Pacific, among others. Using methodological vignettes from their own research, the contributors explore diverse approaches to human-environment dynamics, illustrating the manifold nature of the subject and suggesting a wide variety of strategies for approaching it. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars in Archaeology, Paleoenvironmental Science, Ecology, and Geology.

The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions

The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions PDF

Author: Daniel Contreras

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-08-25

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1317450612

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The impacts of climate change on human societies, and the roles those societies themselves play in altering their environments, appear in headlines more and more as concern over modern global climate change intensifies. Increasingly, archaeologists and paleoenvironmental scientists are looking to evidence from the human past to shed light on the processes which link environmental and cultural change. Establishing clear contemporaneity and correlation, and then moving beyond correlation to causation, remains as much a theoretical task as a methodological one. This book addresses this challenge by exploring new approaches to human-environment dynamics and confronting the key task of constructing arguments that can link the two in concrete and detailed ways. The contributors include researchers working in a wide variety of regions and time periods, including Mesoamerica, Mongolia, East Africa, the Amazon Basin, and the Island Pacific, among others. Using methodological vignettes from their own research, the contributors explore diverse approaches to human-environment dynamics, illustrating the manifold nature of the subject and suggesting a wide variety of strategies for approaching it. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars in Archaeology, Paleoenvironmental Science, Ecology, and Geology.

Human-Environment Interactions

Human-Environment Interactions PDF

Author: Eduardo S. Brondízio

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-11-15

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 9400747802

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Drawing on research from eleven countries across four continents, the 16 chapters in the volume bring perspectives from various specialties in anthropology and human ecology, institutional analysis, historical and political ecology, geography, archaeology, and land change sciences. The four sections of the volume reflect complementary approaches to HEI: health and adaptation approaches, land change and landscape management approaches, institutional and political-ecology approaches, and historical and archaeological approaches.

The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes

The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes PDF

Author: Kevin Walsh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 052185301X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Reviews the palaeoenvironmental evidence and its incorporation with landscape archaeology across the Mediterranean, from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Roman period.

California's Channel Islands

California's Channel Islands PDF

Author: Christopher S. Jazwa

Publisher: Anthropology of Pacific North

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781607812715

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Definitive analyses of these unique Pacific coast islands and their inhabitants

Human Interactions with the Geosphere

Human Interactions with the Geosphere PDF

Author: Lucy Wilson

Publisher: Geological Society of London

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781862393257

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Human impact on our environment is not a new phenomenon. For millennia, humans have been coping with - or provoking - environmental change. We have exploited, extracted, over-used, but also in many cases nurtured, the resources that the geosphere offers. Geoarchaeology studies the traces of human interactions with the geosphere and provides the key to recognizing landscape and environmental change, human impacts and the effects of environmental change on human societies. This collection of papers from around the world includes case studies and broader reviews covering the time period since before modern human beings came into existence up until the present day. To understand ourselves, we need to understand that our world is constantly changing, and that change is dynamic and complex. Geoarchaeology provides an inclusive and long-term view of human-geosphere interactions and serves as a valuable aid to those who try to determine sustainable policies for the future.

Modelling Human-Environment Interactions in and beyond Prehistoric Europe

Modelling Human-Environment Interactions in and beyond Prehistoric Europe PDF

Author: Samuel Seuru

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-07-25

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 3031343360

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book offers insight into the relationship between prehistoric and protohistoric human populations and the world around them. It reconstructs key aspects of the palaeoenvironment – from large-scale drivers of environmental conditions, such as climate, to more regional variables such as vegetation cover and faunal communities. The volume underscores how computational archaeology is leading the way in the study of past human-environment interactions across spatial and chronological scales. With the increased availability of high-resolution climate models, agent-based modelling, palaeoecological proxies and the mature use of Geographic Information System in ecological modelling, archaeologists working in interdisciplinary settings are well-positioned to explore the intersection of human systems and environmental affordances and constraints. These methodological advancements provide a better understanding of the role humans played in past ecosystems – both in terms of their impact upon the environment and, in return, the impact of environmental conditions on human systems. They may also allow us to infer past ecological knowledge and land-use patterns that are historically contingent, rather than environmentally determined. This volume gathers contributions that combine reconstructions of past environments and archeological data with a view to exploring their complex interactions at different scales and invites scholars from varying disciplines and backgrounds to present and compare different modelling approaches.

Archaeology as Human Ecology

Archaeology as Human Ecology PDF

Author: Karl W. Butzer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1982-05-31

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9780521288774

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Archaeology as Human Ecology is a new introduction to concepts and methods in archaeology. It deals not with artifacts, but with sites, settlements, and subsistence. It is essential reading for students, research workers, and all concerned with archaeological method and theory.

Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change

Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change PDF

Author: Paul A. Delcourt

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-07-29

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0521662702

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book shows that Holocene human ecosystems are complex adaptive systems in which humans interacted with their environment in a nested series of spatial and temporal scales. Using panarchy theory, it integrates paleoecological and archaeological research from the Eastern Woodlands of North America providing a paradigm to help resolve long-standing disagreements between ecologists and archaeologists about the importance of prehistoric Native Americans as agents for ecological change. The authors present the concept of a panarchy of complex adaptive cycles as applied to the development of increasingly complex human ecosystems through time. They explore examples of ecological interactions at the level of gene, population, community, landscape and regional hierarchical scales, emphasizing the ecological pattern and process involving the development of human ecosystems. Finally, they offer a perspective on the implications of the legacy of Native Americans as agents of change for conservation and ecological restoration efforts today.