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...

Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, and other fields to show how culture and environment have shaped the history of malaria and will make it one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century.

Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, and other fields to show how culture and environment have shaped the history of malaria and will make it one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century.

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...

Stephen 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...

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...

Stephen 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...

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 rigour 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,...

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...

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...