The purpose of this book is to engender ideas and discussion regarding broader issues related to historical ecology. The unifying topic of the case studies presented in this volume is that they deal with groups that are pursuing small-scale economies. Small-scale economies in this context refer to groups primarily making their living by hunting, gathering, fishing, or limited agricultural endeavors. The volume is divided into two sections. Part I consists of historical ecology case studies of small-scale economies from various regions around the world, including Denmark, California's Channel I ... More

The purpose of this book is to engender ideas and discussion regarding broader issues related to historical ecology. The unifying topic of the case studies presented in this volume is that they deal with groups that are pursuing small-scale economies. Small-scale economies in this context refer to groups primarily making their living by hunting, gathering, fishing, or limited agricultural endeavors. The volume is divided into two sections. Part I consists of historical ecology case studies of small-scale economies from various regions around the world, including Denmark, California's Channel Islands, Japan, the Georgia Coast, Mexico and American Southwest, Coastal Brazil, and the mountains of Montana. The case studies span a wide variety of climates and encompass a temporal scale that begins in the late Pleistocene and extends to modern-day groups. In Part II, researchers from multiple disciplines, including anthropology and ecology, offer their thoughts and perspectives on the themes explored in the volume as a whole and the theoretical future of historical ecology. All the contributors to this volume consider the relevance of such inquiry with respect to modern society's interaction with the environment.