Overview

Interlacing varied approaches within Historical Ecology, this volume offers new routes to researching and understanding human–environmental interactions and the heterarchical power relations that shape both socioecological change and resilience over time. Historical Ecology draws from archaeology, archival research, ethnography, the humanities and the biophysical sciences to merge the history of the Earth’s biophysical system with the history of humanity. Considering landscape as the spatial manifestation of the relations between humans and their environments through time, the authors in this volume examine the multi-directional power dynamics that have shaped settlement, agrarian, monumental and ritual landscapes through the long-term field projects they have pursued around the globe. Examining both biocultural stability and change through the longue durée in different regions, these essays highlight intersectionality and counterpoised power flows to demonstrate that alongside and in spite of hierarchical ideologies, the daily life of power is heterarchical. Knowledge of transtemporal human–environmental relationships is necessary for strategizing socioecological resilience. Historical Ecology shows how the past can be useful to the future.

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9780815347750

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Reviews

This collection of papers is an excellent introduction to, and overview of, research in the field of Historical Ecology. The topic is especially timely, as archaeologists and historians think increasingly about how our understanding of interrelations between humans and their environments in the past can help us to understand changes happening in the present and to plan for the future. Chapters include discussion of theory and method, as well as case studies that demonstrate the application of the approach to changes in early societies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. This book is valuable both for its explanation of the subject of Historical Ecology and for the information presented in the case studies. Peter Wells, University of Minnesota, USA The work of Carole Crumley has impacted a broad audience of anthropological archaeologists for several decades now, with both her championing of Historical Ecology and her early transdisciplinary introduction of the heterarchy concept markedly influencing the field. By bringing together several contributors who have been significantly affected by her long and productive career, this collection is a robust encounter with Crumley's influence and how her clear thinking has profoundly altered our assessment of archaeological method and theory. Vernon L. Scarborough, University of Cincinnati, USA

"""This collection of papers is an excellent introduction to, and overview of, research in the field of Historical Ecology. The topic is especially timely, as archaeologists and historians think increasingly about how our understanding of interrelations between humans and their environments in the past can help us to understand changes happening in the present and to plan for the future. Chapters include discussion of theory and method, as well as case studies that demonstrate the application of the approach to changes in early societies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. This book is valuable both for its explanation of the subject of Historical Ecology and for the information presented in the case studies."" Peter Wells, University of Minnesota, USA ""The work of Carole Crumley has impacted a broad audience of anthropological archaeologists for several decades now, with both her championing of Historical Ecology and her early transdisciplinary introduction of the heterarchy concept markedly influencing the field. By bringing together several contributors who have been significantly affected by her long and productive career, this collection is a robust encounter with Crumley’s influence and how her clear thinking has profoundly altered our assessment of archaeological method and theory."" Vernon L. Scarborough, University of Cincinnati, USA This collection of papers is an excellent introduction to, and overview of, research in the field of historical ecology. The topic is especially timely, as archaeologists and historians think increasingly about how our understanding of interrelations between humans and their environments in the past can help us to understand changes happening in the present and to plan for the future. Chapters include discussion of theory and method, as well as case studies that demonstrate the application of the approach to changes in early societies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. This book is valuable both for its explanation of the subject of historical ecology and for the information presented in the case studies. Peter Wells, University of Minnesota, USA The work of Carole Crumley has impacted a broad audience of anthropological archaeologists for several decades now, with both her championing of Historical Ecology and her early transdisciplinary introduction of the heterarchy concept markedly influencing the field. By bringing together several contributors who have been significantly affected by her long and productive career, this collection is a robust encounter with Crumley’s influence and how her clear thinking has profoundly altered our assessment of archaeological method and theory. Vernon L. Scarborough, University of Cincinnati"

This collection of papers is an excellent introduction to, and overview of, research in the field of historical ecology. The topic is especially timely, as archaeologists and historians think increasingly about how our understanding of interrelations between humans and their environments in the past can help us to understand changes happening in the present and to plan for the future. Chapters include discussion of theory and method, as well as case studies that demonstrate the application of the approach to changes in early societies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. This book is valuable both for its explanation of the subject of historical ecology and for the information presented in the case studies. Peter Wells, University of Minnesota, USA The work of Carole Crumley has impacted a broad audience of anthropological archaeologists for several decades now, with both her championing of Historical Ecology and her early transdisciplinary introduction of the heterarchy concept markedly influencing the field. By bringing together several contributors who have been significantly affected by her long and productive career, this collection is a robust encounter with Crumley's influence and how her clear thinking has profoundly altered our assessment of archaeological method and theory. Vernon L. Scarborough, University of Cincinnati

Author Information

Celeste Ray is Professor of Environmental Arts and Humanities and Anthropology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She is the author of The Origins of Ireland’s Holy Wells and Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South, and is the editor of volumes considering Scottish identities or Southern Culture, including Transatlantic Scots, Southern Heritage on Display and Ethnicity (Volume Six of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture). Manuel Fernández-Götz is Reader in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize. He has authored more than 150 publications on Iron Age societies and the Roman conquest, including the monographs Identity and Power: The Transformation of Iron Age Societies in Northeast Gaul (2014), and the edited volumes Eurasia at the Dawn of History (2016) and Conflict Archaeology: Materialities of Collective Violence from Prehistory to Late Antiquity (2018). He has directed fieldwork in Germany, Spain, Scotland and Croatia.

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