Overview

Most research into humans’ impact on the environment has focused on large-scale societies; a corollary assumption has been that small scale economies are sustainable and in harmony with nature. The contributors to this volume challenge this notion, revealing how such communities shaped their environment—and not always in a positive way. Offering case studies from around the world—from Brazil to Japan, Denmark to the Rocky Mountains—the chapters empirically demonstrate the substantial transformations of the surrounding landscape made by hunter-gatherer and limited horticultural societies. Summarising previous research as well as presenting new data, this book shows that the environmental impact and legacy of societies are not always proportional their size. Understanding that our species leaves a footprint wherever it has been leads to both a better understanding of our prehistoric past and to deeper implications for our future relationship to the world around us.

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9780813042428

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Highly recommended. . . . This is most essential reading during the Anthropocene. --Geoarchaeology Demonstrate[s] the importance of this longue dur e perspective to modern policy by uncovering the varying impacts of different scales of human environmental exploitation. --Archaeological Review from Cambridge Highly recommended. --North American Archaeologist

Author Information

Victor D. Thompson is assistant professor of anthropology at Ohio State University. James C. Waggoner Jr. (1971–2009) conducted archaeological research in the southeastern United States.

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