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This edited volume gathers contributions focused on understanding the environment through the lens of Historical Archaeology. Pressing issues such as climate change, global warming, the Anthropocene and loss of biodiversity have pushed scholars from different areas to examine issues related to the causes, processes, and consequences of these phenomena. While traditional barriers between natural and social sciences have been torn down, these issues have gradually occupied a central place in the field of anthropology. As archaeology involves the transdisciplinary study of cultural and natural evidence related to the past, it is in a privileged position to discuss the historical depth of some of the processes related to environment that are deeply affecting the world today.
This volume brings together substantial and comprehensive contributions to the understanding of the environment in a historical perspective along threelines of inquiry:
- Theoretical and methodological approaches to the environment in Historical Archaeology
- Studies on environmental Historical Archaeology
- Historical Archaeology and the Anthropocene
Historical Archaeology and Environment will be of interest to researchers in both social and environmental sciences, working in different disciplines and research areas, such as archaeology, history, geography, anthropology, climate change studies, environmental analysis and sustainable development studies.
List of contents
Chapter 1.Introduction: Historical Archaeology and environment.- Part I: Conceptual frameworks.- Chapter 2.More than just a record: active ecological effects of archaeological strata.- Chapter 3. The Archaeology of Climate Change: Is Unbridled Commodity Production Sustainable?.- Part II: Studies on environmental historical archaeology.- Chapter 4.Eco-historical archaeology in the Brazilian Amazon: material, natural and cultural western transformations.- Chapter 5.Indigenous charcoal production and Spanish metal mining enterprises: Historical Archaeology of extractive activities and ecological degradation in central and northern Mexico.- Chapter 6.Towards an archaeology of extensive pastoralism in the Great Artesian basin in Australia.- Chapter 7.The fishermen's disappearance: an archaeology of cruel modernity in São Paulo city.- Chapter 8. Entangled relations: the expansion of a colonial frontier in Central Brazil, eighteenth-century.- Chapter 9. The Deep History of the Ficus Thonningii Bl. in Central Africa: Ontology, Settlement and Environment among Lower Congo Peoples (Early times to 500 B.C.E.).- Chapter 10. The Evolution of Recent Multidisciplinary Deep-Water Archaeological and Biological Research on the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf.- Part III.Historical Archaeology and the Anthropocene.- Chapter 11. Archaeology and the Anthropocene in the Study of Settler Australia.- Chapter 12.The Anthropocene in Antarctica: Considering "fixed" and "more fluid" perspectives of analysis.
About the author
Marcos André Torres de Souzais a professor of the graduate program in Archaeology at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Professor Souza has a PhD in Anthropology from the Syracuse University, USA, and is an expert in Historical Archaeology, conducting research projects in historical sites linked to the African Diaspora in Brazil and the contact period.
Diogo Menezes Costais a professor of the graduate program in Anthropology at the Federal University of Pará, Brazil. Professor Costa has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA, and is the leader of the Research Group in Historical Archaeology of Amazon. He is an expert in Historical and Environmental Archaeology and has conducted research projects in these fields in different sites in northern and central Brazil.
Summary
This edited volume gathers contributions focused on understanding the environment through the lens of Historical Archaeology. Pressing issues such as climate change, global warming, the Anthropocene and loss of biodiversity have pushed scholars from different areas to examine issues related to the causes, processes, and consequences of these phenomena. While traditional barriers between natural and social sciences have been torn down, these issues have gradually occupied a central place in the field of anthropology. As archaeology involves the transdisciplinary study of cultural and natural evidence related to the past, it is in a privileged position to discuss the historical depth of some of the processes related to environment that are deeply affecting the world today. This volume brings together substantial and comprehensive contributions to the understanding of the environment in a historical perspective along threelines of inquiry: Theoretical and methodological approaches to the environment in Historical Archaeology Studies on environmental Historical Archaeology Historical Archaeology and the Anthropocene Historical Archaeology and Environment will be of interest to researchers in both social and environmental sciences, working in different disciplines and research areas, such as archaeology, history, geography, anthropology, climate change studies, environmental analysis and sustainable development studies.
