Books in the Historical Ecology Series series

This work offers an alternative view of the "New World" before the arrival of the Europeans. Drawing on knowledge from the fields of palaeo-climatology, historical ecology, and botany, this book examines how the Western Hemishpere's indigenous inhabitants transformed their natural environment.

Experts in a variety of disciplines in the natural and social sciences--including geology, climatology, history, and anthropology--consider such topics as the dynamics of climate, human perceptions of and responses to the environment, and issues of sustainability and resiliency.

The Huaorani of Ecuador lived as hunters and gatherers in the Amazonian rainforest for hundred of years, largely undisturbed by western civilization. This book provides description of Huaorani society and culture according to modern standards of ethnographic writing.

This collection of studies by anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, and biologists is an important contribution to the emerging field of historical ecology. The book combines cutting-edge research with new perspectives to emphasize the close relationship between humans and their natural environment.Contributors examine how alterations in the natural world mirror human cultures, societies, and languages. Treating the landscape like a text, these researchers decipher patterns and meaning in the Ecuadorian Andes, Amazonia, the desert coast of Peru, and other regions in the neotropics. They show how local peoples have changed the landscape over time to fit their needs by managing and modifying species diversity, enhancing landscape heterogeneity, and controlling ecological disturbance. In turn, the environment itself becomes a form of architecture rich with historical and archaeological significance. Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology explores thousands of years of ecological history while also addressing important contemporary issues, such as biodiversity and genetic variation and change. Engagingly written and expertly researched, this book introduces and exemplifies a unique method for better understanding the link between humans and the biosphere.

Bridging the divide between social and natural sciences, this text uses a holistic perspective to explore the relationships between humans and their environment. The contributors focus on traditional societies where lands are most at risk from the incursions of complex, state-level societies.