Prehistoric Human Environment Interactions

Author : Elizabeth A. Scharf
Publisher : British Archaeological Reports Limited
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1407305824

Get Book

Prehistoric Human-environment Interactions by Elizabeth A. Scharf Pdf

Modern ecological studies are unable to examine long-term processes operating on the order of hundreds of years. Because of the limited length of modern and historic records, questions about long-term interactions between people and the environment can only be answered using paleoecological and archaeological information. This volume presents prehistoric records that span over a millennium to examine issues of human paleoecology on the Columbia Plateau of Washington State, USA. Unlike many previous studies, this study (1) quantifies past human population, (2) compares relative inputs of humans, climate, fire, and vegetation using multivariate statistics, (3) examines relationships between variables when leads and lags of different lengths are introduced, and (4) identifies multicollinearity, allowing variables of no unique explanatory value to be eliminated. This study indicates that research on human impacts that focuses on bivariate patterns, such as simple comparisons of coeval human population and fire, can suffer from the problem of equifinality. The multivariate statistical procedures employed in this work avoid these problems, however, and can be used in any study that employs observations taken at equally-spaced time intervals. Additionally, the protocols developed and used in this volume can be easily adapted and applied in new geographical areas-the methods and research design used need not be tied to this particular location.

Author : Guanghui Dong,Jade D’Alpoim Guedes
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2022-05-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9782889762552

Get Book

Human-Environmental Interactions in Prehistoric Periods by Guanghui Dong,Jade D’Alpoim Guedes Pdf

Author : Daniel Contreras
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2016-08-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317450627

Get Book

The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions by Daniel Contreras Pdf

The impacts of climate change on human societies, and the roles those societies themselves play in altering their environments, appear in headlines more and more as concern over modern global climate change intensifies. Increasingly, archaeologists and paleoenvironmental scientists are looking to evidence from the human past to shed light on the processes which link environmental and cultural change. Establishing clear contemporaneity and correlation, and then moving beyond correlation to causation, remains as much a theoretical task as a methodological one. This book addresses this challenge by exploring new approaches to human-environment dynamics and confronting the key task of constructing arguments that can link the two in concrete and detailed ways. The contributors include researchers working in a wide variety of regions and time periods, including Mesoamerica, Mongolia, East Africa, the Amazon Basin, and the Island Pacific, among others. Using methodological vignettes from their own research, the contributors explore diverse approaches to human-environment dynamics, illustrating the manifold nature of the subject and suggesting a wide variety of strategies for approaching it. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars in Archaeology, Paleoenvironmental Science, Ecology, and Geology.

Author : Guanghui Dong,Harry F. Lee,Ren Lele
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2023-10-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 9782832535974

Get Book

Human-Environmental Interactions in Prehistoric Periods – Volume II by Guanghui Dong,Harry F. Lee,Ren Lele Pdf

Author : Samuel Seuru,Benjamin Albouy
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 166 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2023-07-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783031343360

Get Book

Modelling Human-Environment Interactions in and beyond Prehistoric Europe by Samuel Seuru,Benjamin Albouy Pdf

This book offers insight into the relationship between prehistoric and protohistoric human populations and the world around them. It reconstructs key aspects of the palaeoenvironment – from large-scale drivers of environmental conditions, such as climate, to more regional variables such as vegetation cover and faunal communities. The volume underscores how computational archaeology is leading the way in the study of past human-environment interactions across spatial and chronological scales. With the increased availability of high-resolution climate models, agent-based modelling, palaeoecological proxies and the mature use of Geographic Information System in ecological modelling, archaeologists working in interdisciplinary settings are well-positioned to explore the intersection of human systems and environmental affordances and constraints. These methodological advancements provide a better understanding of the role humans played in past ecosystems – both in terms of their impact upon the environment and, in return, the impact of environmental conditions on human systems. They may also allow us to infer past ecological knowledge and land-use patterns that are historically contingent, rather than environmentally determined. This volume gathers contributions that combine reconstructions of past environments and archeological data with a view to exploring their complex interactions at different scales and invites scholars from varying disciplines and backgrounds to present and compare different modelling approaches.

Author : National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Earth Sciences and Resources,Committee on the Earth System Context for Hominin Evolution
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2010-04-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780309148382

Get Book

Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution by National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Earth Sciences and Resources,Committee on the Earth System Context for Hominin Evolution Pdf

The hominin fossil record documents a history of critical evolutionary events that have ultimately shaped and defined what it means to be human, including the origins of bipedalism; the emergence of our genus Homo; the first use of stone tools; increases in brain size; and the emergence of Homo sapiens, tools, and culture. The Earth's geological record suggests that some evolutionary events were coincident with substantial changes in African and Eurasian climate, raising the possibility that critical junctures in human evolution and behavioral development may have been affected by the environmental characteristics of the areas where hominins evolved. Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution explores the opportunities of using scientific research to improve our understanding of how climate may have helped shape our species. Improved climate records for specific regions will be required before it is possible to evaluate how critical resources for hominins, especially water and vegetation, would have been distributed on the landscape during key intervals of hominin history. Existing records contain substantial temporal gaps. The book's initiatives are presented in two major research themes: first, determining the impacts of climate change and climate variability on human evolution and dispersal; and second, integrating climate modeling, environmental records, and biotic responses. Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution suggests a new scientific program for international climate and human evolution studies that involve an exploration initiative to locate new fossil sites and to broaden the geographic and temporal sampling of the fossil and archeological record; a comprehensive and integrative scientific drilling program in lakes, lake bed outcrops, and ocean basins surrounding the regions where hominins evolved and a major investment in climate modeling experiments for key time intervals and regions that are critical to understanding human evolution.

Author : Paul A. Delcourt,Hazel R. Delcourt
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2004-07-29
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780521662703

Get Book

Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change by Paul A. Delcourt,Hazel R. Delcourt Pdf

Demonstrates the importance of prehistoric human activities in the ecology of eastern North America, and its implications for conservation today.

Author : Lucy Wilson
Publisher : Geological Society of London
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Archaeological geology
ISBN : 1862393257

Get Book

Human Interactions with the Geosphere by Lucy Wilson Pdf

Human impact on our environment is not a new phenomenon. For millennia, humans have been coping with - or provoking - environmental change. We have exploited, extracted, over-used, but also in many cases nurtured, the resources that the geosphere offers. Geoarchaeology studies the traces of human interactions with the geosphere and provides the key to recognizing landscape and environmental change, human impacts and the effects of environmental change on human societies. This collection of papers from around the world includes case studies and broader reviews covering the time period since before modern human beings came into existence up until the present day. To understand ourselves, we need to understand that our world is constantly changing, and that change is dynamic and complex. Geoarchaeology provides an inclusive and long-term view of human-geosphere interactions and serves as a valuable aid to those who try to determine sustainable policies for the future.

Author : Michelle Goman
Publisher : Springer
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2013-11-18
Category : Science
ISBN : 3642368794

Get Book

Human Environment Interactions - Volume 2 by Michelle Goman Pdf

The Holocene is unique when compared to earlier geological time in that humans begin to alter and manipulate the natural environment to their own needs. Domestication of crops and animals and the resultant intensification of agriculture lead to profound changes in the impact humans have on the environment. Conversely, as human populations began to increase geologic and climatic factors begin to have a greater impact on civilizations. To understand and reconstruct the complex interplay between humans and the environment over the past ten thousand years requires examination of multiple differing but interconnected aspects of the environment and involves geomorphology, paleoecology, geoarchaeology and paleoclimatology. These Springer Briefs volumes examine the dynamic interplay between humans and the natural environment as reconstructed by the many and varied sub-fields of the Earth Sciences.

Author : Kevin Walsh
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 381 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521853019

Get Book

The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes by Kevin Walsh Pdf

Reviews the palaeoenvironmental evidence and its incorporation with landscape archaeology across the Mediterranean, from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Roman period.

Author : Eduardo S. Brondízio,Emilio F. Moran
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 427 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2012-11-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789400747807

Get Book

Human-Environment Interactions by Eduardo S. Brondízio,Emilio F. Moran Pdf

Drawing on research from eleven countries across four continents, the 16 chapters in the volume bring perspectives from various specialties in anthropology and human ecology, institutional analysis, historical and political ecology, geography, archaeology, and land change sciences. The four sections of the volume reflect complementary approaches to HEI: health and adaptation approaches, land change and landscape management approaches, institutional and political-ecology approaches, and historical and archaeological approaches.

Author : Charles L. Redman
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 1999-10-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0816519625

Get Book

Human Impact on Ancient Environments by Charles L. Redman Pdf

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.

Author : Peter F. Biehl,Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2016-11-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781438461847

Get Book

Climate and Cultural Change in Prehistoric Europe and the Near East by Peter F. Biehl,Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse Pdf

Rich case studies examining responses to climatic events in ancient Europe and the Near East. The subject of climate change could hardly be more timely. In Climate and Cultural Change in Prehistoric Europe and the Near East, an interdisciplinary group of contributors examine climate change through the lens of new archaeological and paleo-environmental data over the course of more than 10,000 years from the Near East to Europe. Key climatic and other events are contextualized with cultural changes and transitions for which the authors discuss when, how, and if, changes in climate and environment caused people to adapt, move or perish. More than this publication of crucial archaeological and paleo-environmental data, however, the volume seeks to understand the social, political and economic significance of climate change as it was manifested in various ways around the Old World. Contrary to perceptions of threatening global warming in our popular media, and in contrast to grim images of collapse presented in some archaeological discussions of past climate change, this book rejects outright societal collapse as a likely outcome. Yet this does not keep the authors from considering climate change as a potential factor in explaining culture change by adopting a critical stance with regard to the long-standing practice of equating synchronicity with causality, and explicitly considering alternative explanations. Peter F. Biehl is Professor and Department Chair of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and the coeditor (with Douglas C. Comer, Christopher Prescott, and Hilary A. Soderland) of Identity and Heritage: Contemporary Challenges in a Globalized World. Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse is Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Leiden University, Netherlands.

Author : V.M. Kotlyakov,A. A. Velichko,S. A. Vasil'ev
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 650 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2017-09-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780128135334

Get Book

Human Colonization of the Arctic: The Interaction Between Early Migration and the Paleoenvironment by V.M. Kotlyakov,A. A. Velichko,S. A. Vasil'ev Pdf

Human Colonization of the Arctic: The Interaction Between Early Migration and the Paleoenvironment explores the relationship between humans and the environment during this early time of colonization, utilizing analytical methods from both the social and natural sciences to develop a unique, interdisciplinary approach that gives the reader a much broader understanding of the interrelationship between humanity and the environment. As colonization of the polar region was intermittent and irregular, based on how early humans interacted with the land, this book provides a glance into how humans developed new ways to make the region more habitable. The book applies not only to the physical continents, but also the arctic waters. This is how humans succeeded in crossing the Bering Strait and water area between Canadian Arctic Islands. About 4500 years ago , humans reached the northern extremity of Greenland and were able to live through the months of polar nights by both adapting to, and making, changes in their environment. Written by pioneering experts who understand the relationship between humans and the environment in the arctic Addresses why the patterns of colonization were so irregular Includes coverage of the earliest examples of humans, developing an understanding of ecosystem services for economic development in extreme climates Covers both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

Author : Christopher S. Jazwa,Jennifer E. Perry
Publisher : Anthropology of Pacific North
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : History
ISBN : 1607813084

Get Book

California's Channel Islands by Christopher S. Jazwa,Jennifer E. Perry Pdf

Definitive analyses of these unique Pacific coast islands and their inhabitants