The Archaeology and Historical Ecology of Small Scale Economies

by Thompson, Victor D.; Waggoner, James C., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780813042428
• ISBN10: 0813042429
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-01-08
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

Most research into humans' impact on the environment has focused on large-scale societies; a corollary assumption has been that small scale economies are sustainable and in harmony with nature. The contributors to this volume challenge this notion, revealing how such communities shaped their environment-and not always in a positive way. Offering case studies from around the world-from Brazil to Japan, Denmark to the Rocky Mountains-the chapters empirically demonstrate the substantial transformations of the surrounding landscape made by hunter-gatherer and limited horticultural societies. Summarizing previous research as well as presenting new data, this book shows that the environmental impact and legacy of societies are not always proportional their size. Understanding that our species leaves a footprint wherever it has been leads to both a better understanding of our prehistoric past and to deeper implications for our future relationship to the world around us.

Author Biography

Victor D. Thompson is assistant professor at the University of Georgia. James C. Waggoner Jr. (1971-2009) conducted archaeological research in the southeastern United States.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Whispers on the Landscape	p. 1
Case Studies
Human Impacts on Oyster Resources at the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in Denmark	p. 17
Hunter-Gatherers, Endemic Island Mammals, and the Historical Ecology of California's Channel Islands	p. 41
Climate Change, Human Impacts on the Landscape, and Subsistence Specialization: Historical Ecology and Changes in Jomon Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways	p. 65
Cumulative Actions and the Historical Ecology of Islands along the Georgia Coast	p. 79
A Historical Ecological Perspective on Early Agriculture in the North American Southwest and Northwest Mexico	p. 96
Monumental Shell Mounds as Persistent Places in Southern Coastal Brazil	p. 120
To Become a Mountain Hunter: Flexible Core Values and Subsistence Hunting among Reservation-Era Blackfeet	p. 141
Comments and Considerations
Forging Collaborations between Ecology and Historical Ecology	p. 167
Observations about the Historical Ecology of Small-Scale Societies	p. 176
Epilogue: Contingency in the Environments of Foraging Societies	p. 184
Works Cited	p. 189
List of Contributors	p. 223
Index	p. 229
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