Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas
A Perspective from Historical Ecology
Ed. by James Andrew Whitaker, Chelsey Geralda Armstrong & Guillaume Odonne
Routledge, 2023
Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas offers a comparative analysis of the experiences, responses, and adaptations of people to climate variability and environmental change across the Americas. It foregrounds historical ecology as a structural framework for understanding the climate change crisis throughout the region and throughout time. In recent years, Indigenous and local populations in particular have experienced climate change effects such as altered weather patterns, seasonal irregularities, flooding and drought, and difficulties relating to subsistence practices. Understanding and dealing with these challenges has drawn on peoples’ longstanding experience with climate variability and in some cases includes models of mitigation and responses that are millennia old. With contributions from specialists across the Americas, this volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies.
Table of contents
Introduction, by James Andrew Whitaker, Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, Guillaume Odonne.
- “Open the Floodgates of Heaven”: Amazonian Climate Change in Pre-Columbian Times, by Stéphen Rostain, Jonas Gregorio da Souza.
- The Milpa Cycle as a Sustainable Ecological Resource, by Anabel Ford.
- Confronting Climatic Instability in Coastal California Through the Lens of Archaeology and Historical Ecology, by Torben C. Rick, Gabriel M. Sanchez, Shannon Tushingham.
- Indigenous People Prevented Climate-Induced Ecological Change for Millennia: Evidence from the Prairie Peninsula and Fire-Loving Forests of Eastern North America, by Natalie G. Mueller.
- Indigenous Land Use and Fire Resilience of Southwest USA Ponderosa Pine Forests, by Christopher I. Roos, Thomas W. Swetnam, Christopher H. Guiterman.
- Different Relational Models have Shaped the Biocultural Conservation over Time of Araucaria araucana Forests and Their People, by Ana H. Ladio, Mauricio Sedrez dos Reis.
- Ancient and Ongoing Land-Use as Climate Change Mitigation in Ts’msyen, Haíłzaqv, and Wuikinuxv Homelands, by Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, Sara Wickham, Kalina Hunter.
- Clam Gardens Across Generations and Places Support Social–Ecological Resilience to Global Change, by Dana Lepofsky, Anne Salomon.
- Ancient Knowledge, Future Wisdom: Archaeological Perspectives of Caribbean Coastal Food and Habitat Security During Times of Climate Crises, by Isabel Rivera-Collazo.
- Whose Climate Change Is It?:A Thousand-Year Example of Kali’na Responses to Shifting Coastal Landscapes in the Lower Maroni River, by Marquisar Jean-Jacques, Marianne Palisse, Martijn M. van den Bel, Antoine Gardel, Edward J. Anthony.
- Long-Term Ecological and Climate Changes Through Amazonian Indigenous Oral Histories, by Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Francisco Apurinã, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares.
- Owning Climate Change Among the Makushi and Akawaio, by James Andrew Whitaker.
Postface. Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas: A Perspective from Historical Ecology, by Victoria Reyes-García, André Braga Junqueira.
