Human Impact on Ancient EnvironmentsUniversity of Arizona Press, 1 oct 1999 - 288 páginas Threats to biodiversity, food shortages, urban sprawl . . . lessons for environmental problems that confront us today may well be found in the past. The archaeological record contains hundreds of situations in which societies developed long-term sustainable relationships with their environments—and thousands in which the relationships were destructive. Charles Redman demonstrates that much can be learned from an improved understanding of peoples who, through seemingly rational decisions, degraded their environments and threatened their own survival. By discussing archaeological case studies from around the world—from the deforestation of the Mayan lowlands to soil erosion in ancient Greece to the almost total depletion of resources on Easter Island—Redman reveals the long-range coevolution of culture and environment and clearly shows the impact that ancient peoples had on their world. These case studies focus on four themes: habitat transformation and animal extinctions, agricultural practices, urban growth, and the forces that accompany complex society. They show that humankind's commitment to agriculture has had cultural consequences that have conditioned our perception of the environment and reveal that societies before European contact did not necessarily live the utopian existences that have been popularly supposed. Whereas most books on this topic tend to treat human societies as mere reactors to environmental stimuli, Redman's volume shows them to be active participants in complex and evolving ecological relationships. Human Impact on Ancient Environments demonstrates how archaeological research can provide unique insights into the nature of human stewardship of the Earth and can permanently alter the way we think about humans and the environment. |
Índice
Lessons from a Prehistoric Eden | 3 |
Attitudes toward the Environment | 15 |
Concepts That Organize Our Thoughts | 35 |
The Prehistoric | 53 |
The Impact of Agrarian Systems | 81 |
The Growth of World Urbanism | 127 |
Forces That Grew with Society | 159 |
The Past as Prologue | 195 |
Works Cited | 221 |
235 | |
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Términos y frases comunes
abandonment activities agrarian agriculture Ain Ghazal allow America Anasazi archaeological archaeological evidence archaeologists Argolid attitudes basic central century chapter climate change communities crops cultivation cultural cycle decision-making decisions deforestation degradation developed diseases domestic early Easter Island ecological economic ecosystem energy environment environmental extinctions factors farming favorable fertility fields food sources forest global goats grazing groups habitat Hence herbivores herds Hohokam Holocene human impacts human population human-environmental interactions hunting Ice Age important increasing irrigation islands labor land landscape Levant living locations long-term lowland major Maya Mediterranean Mesopotamia millennia natural natural environment nutrients organisms past period perspective Petén pollen Polynesian population density population growth potential prehistoric problem region relationships River runoff sediments settlement situation slopes social soil erosion species strategies studies success survival terracing tion trade transformation trees trophic pyramid uplands Ur III urban society valley vegetation villages