The Environment Dictionary


Book Description

The Environment Dictionary provides an essential source of information on all aspects of the environment. It includes all the basic scientific terms and concepts along with socio-economic, cultural, historical and political elements which impact on the environment. This dictionary provides the interdisciplinary approach required to understand environmental issues worldwide. Designed for a wide range of readers, the dictionary is up-to-date, easy to read and to reference and clearly and attractively presented. Selected environmental issues which have particular importance are treated in greater depth through a series of boxed case studies. A wide range of maps, diagrams, figures and photos illustrate the texts and extensie cross-referencing between entries ensures readers can build on their knowledge. References and further reading sections are drawn from a wide range of accessible sources - from newspaper articles and popular magazines to academic texts and journals and provide easy access to further study and development of readers' specific interests.




Archaeology of Native North America


Book Description

This comprehensive text is intended for the junior-senior level course in North American Archaeology. Written by accomplished scholar Dean Snow, this new text approaches native North America from the perspective of evolutionary ecology. Succinct, streamlined chapters present an extensive groundwork for supplementary material, or serve as a core text.The narrative covers all of Mesoamerica, and explicates the links between the part of North America covered by the United States and Canada and the portions covered by Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the Greater Antilles. Additionally, book is extensively illustrated with the author's own research and findings.




Ecology and Ethnogenesis


Book Description

In Ecology and Ethnogenesis Adam R. Hodge argues that the Eastern Shoshone tribe, now located on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, underwent a process of ethnogenesis through cultural attachment to its physical environment that proved integral to its survival and existence. He explores the intersection of environmental, indigenous, and gender history to illuminate the historic roots of the Eastern Shoshone bands that inhabited the intermountain West during the nineteenth century. Hodge presents an impressive longue durée narrative of Eastern Shoshone history from roughly 1000 CE to 1868, analyzing the major developments that influenced Shoshone culture and identity. Geographically spanning the Great Basin, Rocky Mountain, Columbia Plateau, and Great Plains regions, Ecology and Ethnogenesis engages environmental history to explore the synergistic relationship between the subsistence methods of indigenous people and the lands that they inhabited prior to the reservation era. In examining that history, Hodge treats Shoshones, other Native peoples, and Euroamericans as agents who, through their use of the environment, were major components of much broader ecosystems. The story of the Eastern Shoshones over eight hundred years is an epic story of ecological transformation, human agency, and cultural adaptation. Ecology and Ethnogenesis is a major contribution to environmental history, ethnohistory, and Native American history. It explores Eastern Shoshone ethnogenesis based on interdisciplinary research in history, archaeology, anthropology, and the natural sciences in devoting more attention to the dynamic and often traumatic history of "precontact" Native America and to how the deeper past profoundly influenced the "postcontact" era.




Agriculture, Resource Exploitation, and Environmental Change


Book Description

This volume examines the ecological consequences of European expansion as a result of land use and resource exploitation. These environmental transformations could be as dramatic as the last Ice Age, but scholars have only begun to take full measure of the changes. The articles presented here provide a map of some of the more promising directions of historical research. Major themes include biological exchange, agriculture, extraction of forest and animal resources, interactions between indigenous and European methods of exploitation, and European approaches to regulation and conservation. A useful corrective to the frontier image of Europeans conquering the wilderness, this volume provides a rich picture of the diversity of European interests and the sometimes unexpected consequences of their approaches to the land.




Common and Contested Ground


Book Description

In Common and Contested Ground, Theodore Binnema provides a sweeping and innovative interpretation of the history of the northwestern plains and its peoples from prehistoric times to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The real history of the northwestern plains between a.d. 200 and 1806 was far more complex, nuanced, and paradoxical than often imagined. Drawn by vast herds of buffalo and abundant resources, Native peoples, fur traders, and settlers moved across the region establishing intricate patterns of trade, diplomacy, and warfare. In the process, the northwestern plains became a common and contested ground. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Binnema examines the impact of technology on the peoples of the plains, beginning with the bow and arrow and continuing through the arrival of the horse, European weapons, Old World diseases, and Euroamerican traders. His focus on the environment and its effect on patterns of behaviour and settlement brings a unique perspective to the history of the region.




A Sense of the American West


Book Description

An anthology of diverse approaches and issues in the environmental history of the American West.




Archaeology on the Great Plains


Book Description

Stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to central Canada, North America's great interior grasslands were home to nomadic hunters and semisedentary farmers for almost 11,500 years before the arrival of Euro-American settlers. Pan-continental trade between these hunters and horticulturists helped make the lifeways of Plains Indians among the richest and most colorful of Native Americans. This volume is the first attempt to synthesize current knowledge on the cultural history of the Great Plains since Wedel's Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains became the standard reference on the subject almost forty years ago. Fourteen authors have undertaken the task of examining archaeological phenomena through time and by region to present a systematic overview of the region's human history. Focusing on habitat and cultural diversity and on the changing archaeological record, they reconstruct how people responded to the varying environment, climate, and biota of the grasslands to acquire the resources they needed to survive. The contributors have analyzed archaeological artifacts and other evidence to present a systematic overview of human history in each of the five key Plains regions: Southern, Central, Middle Missouri, Northeastern, and Northwestern. They review the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Plains Village peoples and tell how their cultural traditions have continued from ancient to modern times. Each essay covers technology, diet, settlement, and adaptive patterns to give readers an understanding of the differences and similarities among groups. The story of Plains peoples is brought into historical focus by showing the impacts of Euro-American contact, notably acquisition of the horse and exposure to new diseases. Featuring 85 maps and illustrations, Archaeology on the Great Plains is an exceptional introduction to the field for students and an indispensable reference for specialists. It enhances our understanding of how the Plains shaped the adaptive strategies of peoples through time and fosters a greater appreciation for their cultures.




The Natural West


Book Description

The Natural West offers essays reflecting the natural history of the American West as written by one of its most respected environmental historians. Developing a provocative theme, Dan Flores asserts that Western environmental history cannot be explained by examining place, culture, or policy alone, but should be understood within the context of a universal human nature. The Natural West entertains the notion that we all have a biological nature that helps explain some of our attitudes towards the environment. FLores also explains the ways in which various cultures-including the Comanches, New Mexico Hispanos, Mormons, Texans, and Montanans-interact with the environment of the West. Gracefully moving between the personal and the objective, Flores intersperses his writings with literature, scientific theory, and personal reflection. The topics cover a wide range-from historical human nature regarding animals and exploration, to the environmental histories of particular Western bioregions, and finally, to Western restoration as the great environmental theme of the twenty-first century.




The American West


Book Description

"Those who appreciate the impact of history will be impressed with the selection of articles." —Nebraska History Designed for survey courses—yet in-depth enough to support intensive discussion—these seventeen classic essays traverse the history of the American West, from women's property rights in Spanish-Mexican California to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, from homesteading and mining to the Great Depression and World War II. Provocative and illuminating.