Historical Ecologies, Heterarchies and Transtemporal Landscapes

by Celeste Ray (Editor), Celeste Ray (Editor), Celeste Ray (Editor), Manuel Fernández-Götz (Editor)

• New

  Illustrated
  2019

  $143.42

  Twenty-five years after historical ecology's multidimensional orientation has come to characterize many archaeological and cultural studies considering the dialectic of human-environmental relations, this volume's essays collectively address the ways in which historical ecologies have challenged established models in archaeological thinking and what new understandings promise for future research. 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, authors in this volume examine the multi-directional power dynamics which 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 Duree 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. This volume models routes for making the past useful to the future.