Anthropology, Space, and Geographic Information Systems

by Aldenderfer, Mark; Maschner, Herbert D. G.

• ISBN13: 9780195085754
• ISBN10: 0195085752
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-07-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Major advances in the use of geographic information systems have been made in both anthropology and archaeology. Yet there are few published discussions of these new applications and their use in solving complex problems. This book explores these techniques, showing how they have been successfully deployed to pursue research previously considered too difficult--or impossible--to undertake. Among the projects described here are studies of land degradation in the Peruvian Amazon, settlement patterns in the Pacific northwest, ethnic distribution within the Los Angeles garment industry, and prehistoric sociopolitical development among the Anasazi. Following an introduction that discusses the theory of geographic information systems in relation to anthropological inquiry, the book is divided into sections demonstrating actual applications in cultural anthropology, archaeology, paleoanthropology, and physical anthropology. The work will be of much interest within all these communities.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 3
Land Degradation in the Peruvian Amazon: Applying GIS in Human Ecology Research	p. 19
The Use of GIS to Measure Spatial Patterns of Ethnic Firms in the Los Angeles Garment Industry	p. 44
A Formal Justification for the Application of GIS to the Cultural Ecological Analysis of Land-Use Intensification and Deforestation in the Amazon	p. 55
Integrating Socioeconomic and Geographic Information Systems: A Methodology for Rural Development and Agricultural Policy Design	p. 78
Empirical and Methodological Problems in Developing a GIS Database for Yanomano Tribesmen Located in Remote Areas	p. 97
A Time to Rend, A Time to Sew: New Perspectives on Northern Anasazi Sociopolitical Development in Late Prehistory	p. 107
Moving from Catchments to Cognition: Tentative Steps Toward a Larger Archaeological Context for GIS	p. 132
An Analysis of Late-Horizon Settlement Patterns in the Teotihuacan-Temascalapa Basins: A Location-Allocation and GIS-Based Approach	p. 155
The Politics of Settlement Choice on the Northwest Coast: Cognition, GIS, and Coastal Landscapes	p. 175
The Role of GIS in the Management of Archaeological Data: An Example of Application for the Spanish Administration	p. 190
The Role of GIS in the Interdisciplinary Investigations at Olorgesailie, Kenya, a Pleistocene Archaeological Locality	p. 202
Danebury Revisited: An English Iron Age Hillfort in a Digital Landscape	p. 214
Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis in the Social Sciences	p. 241
References	p. 251
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