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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010123704 | E78.E2 D44 2004 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
Searching... | 30000010156504 | E78.E2 D44 2004 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
There has long been controversy between ecologists and archaeologists over the role of prehistoric Native Americans as agents of ecological change. Using ecological and archaeological data from the woodlands of eastern North America, Paul and Hazel Delcourt show that Holocene human ecosystems are complex adaptive systems in which humans have interacted with the environment on a series of spatial and time scales. Their work therefore has important implications for the conservation of biological diversity and for ecological restoration today, making it of great interest to ecologists and archaeologists alike.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
There has long been debate over whether Native Americans lived in harmony with their environment or modified it in major ways before the advent of European settlers. This work attempts to investigate the question under the aegis of "panarchy theory," a relatively new approach to human ecology in which interactions between humans and their environment are seen as "adaptive responses that result in self-organized hierarchical systems." Following several introductory chapters on the method and approach, the authors (both ecology and evolutionary biology, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville) examine five levels of interaction, with a concentration on eastern North America over the past 7,000 years. Domestication, hunting, and relationships between Native Americans and their local, mid-range, and large-region environments are explored to support this new interpretation. A final brief chapter applies these findings to modern approaches to land management, arguing that if Native Americans heavily modified their environments, then modern planners must enlarge the range of possible baselines used in their analyses. The importance of this study will depend upon its reception by the broader scientific community of archaeologists and paleoecologists to which it is addressed. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. E. Delson CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgements |
| Part I Panarchy as an Integrative Paradigm: Overview |
| 1 The need for a new synthesis |
| 2 Panarchy theory and Quaternary ecosystems |
| 3 Holocene human ecosystems |
| Part II Ecological Feedbacks and Processes: Overview |
| 4 Gene-level interactions |
| 5 Population-level interactions |
| 6 Community-level interactions |
| 7 Landscape-level interactions |
| 8 Regional-level interactions |
| Part III Application and Synthesis: Overview |
| 9 The ecological legacy of prehistoric Native Americans |
| References |
| Index |
