It is increasingly clear that social and ecological systems are inextricably linked on a global scale. Yet, despite the current interest in bridging our concepts of nature and society, attempts at integration continue to be stymied by the different theoretical trajectories and academic traditions that divide them. In this benchmark volume, top scholars come together to present state-of-the-art research and pursue a more rigorous framework for understanding and studying social and ecological systems. Contributors from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, geography, ecology, palaeo-science, geology, sociology, and history, present and assess both the evolution of our thinking and current, state-of-the-art theory and research. Covering ancient through modern periods, they discuss the complex ways in which human culture, economy, and demography interact with ecology and climate change. The World System and the Earth System is critical reading for all scholars and students working at the interface of nature and society.

Preface

xi

Contributors

xii

Introduction: Conceptualizing Socioecological Systems

1

(12)

Alf Hornborg

LUND UNIVERSITY

Part I Modeling Socioecological Systems: General Perspectives

13

(96)

1 Historical Ecology: Integrated Thinking at Multiple Temporal and Spatial Scales

15

(14)

Carole L. Crumley

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

2 Toward Developing Synergistic Linkages between the Biophysical and the Cultural: A Palaoenvironmental Perspective

29

(9)

Frank Oldfield

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

3 Integration of World and Earth Systems: Heritage and Foresight

38

(18)

John A. Dearing

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

4 World-Systems as Complex Human Ecosystems

56

(18)

Thomas Abel

TZU CHI UNIVERSITY

5 Lessons from Population Ecology for World-Systems Analyses of Long-Distance Synchrony

74

(17)

Thomas D. Hall

DEPAUW UNIVERSITY

Peter Turchin

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

6 Sustainable Unsustainability: Toward a Comparative Study of Hegemonic Decline in Global Systems

91

(20)

Jonathan Friedman

LUND UNIVERSITY

Part II Case Studies of Socioenvironmental Change in Prehistory

109

(120)

7 Agrarian Landscape Development in Northwestern Europe since the Neolithic: Cultural and Climatic Factors behind a Regional/Continental Pattern

111

(10)

Björn E. Berglund

LUND UNIVERSITY

8 Climate Change in Southern and Eastern Africa during the Past Millennium and Its Implications for Societal Development

121

(11)

Karin Holmgren

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

Helena Öberg

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

9 World-Systems in the Biogeosphere: Urbanization, State Formation, and Climate Change Since the Iron Age

132

(17)

Christopher Chase-Dunn

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE

Thomas D. Hall

DEPAUW UNIVERSITY

Peter Turchin

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

10 Eurasian Transformations: Mobility, Ecological Change, and the Transmission of Social Institutions in the Third Millennium and the Early Second Millennium B.C.E.

149

(14)

Kristian Kristiansen

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

11 Climate, Water, and Political-Economic Crises in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt

163

(17)

William R. Thompson

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

12 Ages of Reorganization

180

(15)

George Modelski

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

13 Sustainable Intensive Exploitation of Amazonia: Cultural, Environmental, and Geopolitical Perspectives

195

(15)

Betty J. Meggers

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

14 Regional Integration and Ecology in Prehistoric Amazonia: Toward a System Perspective

210

(19)

Alf Hornborg

LUND UNIVERSITY

Part III Is the World System Sustainable? Attempts toward an Integrated Socioecological Perspective

229

(88)

15 The Human—Environment Nexus: Progress in the Past Decade in the Integrated Analysis of Human and Biophysical Factors

231

(12)

Emilio F. Moran

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

16 In Search of Sustainability: What Can We Learn from the Past?

243

(15)

Bert J.M. de Vries

BUREAU FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT, BILTHOVEN

17 Political Ecology and Sustainability Science: Opportunity and Challenge

258

(10)

Susan C. Stonich

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA

Daniel S. Mandell

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA

18 No Island is an "Island": Some Perspectives on Human Ecology and Development in Oceania

268

(12)

Thomas Maim

LUND UNIVERSITY

19 Infectious Diseases as Ecological and Historical Phenomena, with Special Reference to the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919

280

(8)

Alfred W. Crosby

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN

20 Evidence from Societal Metabolism Studies for Ecological Unequal Trade

288

(15)

Nina Eisenmenger

UNIVERSITY OF KLAGENFURT

Stefan Giljum

SUSTAINABLE EUROPE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

21 Entropy Generation and Displacement: The Nineteenth-Century Multilateral Network of World Trade

303

(14)

Andre Gunder Frank

WORLD HISTORY CENTER, BOSTON

References

317

(64)

Index

381

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