Download or read book Cultivated Landscapes of Middle America on the Eve of Conquest written by Thomas M. Whitmore and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2001 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on this wealth of data the authors make a contribution to the debate about resource, land, and population in the Americas."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes written by William M. Denevan and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes examines Indian agriculture in South America. The focus is on field types and field technologies, including agricultural landforms such as terraces, canals, and drained fields, which have persisted for hundreds of years. What emerges is a picture of mostly successful indigenous farming practices in difficult environments--rain forests, savannahs, swamps, rugged mountains, and deserts.
Download or read book Fueling Mexico written by Germán Vergara and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-24 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Germán Vergara explains how, when, and why fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) became the basis of Mexican society.
Download or read book Islands in the Rainforest written by Stéphen Rostain and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stéphen Rostain’s book is a culmination of 25 years of research on the extensive human modification of the wetlands environment of Guiana and how it reshapes our thinking of ancient settlement in lowland South America and other tropical zones. Rostain demonstrates that populations were capable of developing intensive raised-field agriculture, which supported significant human density, and construct causeways, habitation mounds, canals, and reservoirs to meet their needs. The work is comparative in every sense, drawing on ethnology, ethnohistory, ecology, and geography; contrasting island Guiana with other wetland regions around the world; and examining millennia of pre-Columbian settlement and colonial occupation alike. Rostain’s work demands a radical rethinking of conventional wisdom about settlement in tropical lowlands and landscape management by its inhabitants over the course of millennia.
Download or read book The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History written by Joel Mokyr and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2003 with total page 2812 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What were the economic roots of modern industrialism? Were labor unions ever effective in raising workers' living standards? Did high levels of taxation in the past normally lead to economic decline? These and similar questions profoundly inform a wide range of intertwined social issues whose complexity, scope, and depth become fully evident in the Encyclopedia. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the Encyclopedia is divided not only by chronological and geographic boundaries, but also by related subfields such as agricultural history, demographic history, business history, and the histories of technology, migration, and transportation. The articles, all written and signed by international contributors, include scholars from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Covering economic history in all areas of the world and segments of ecnomies from prehistoric times to the present, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History is the ideal resource for students, economists, and general readers, offering a unique glimpse into this integral part of world history.
Download or read book An Introduction to Cultural Ecology written by Mark Q. Sutton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-26 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This contemporary introduction to the principles and research base of cultural ecology is the ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses that deal with the intersection of humans and the environment in traditional societies. After introducing the basic principles of cultural anthropology, environmental studies, and human biological adaptations to the environment, the book provides a thorough discussion of the history of, and theoretical basis behind, cultural ecology. The bulk of the book outlines the broad economic strategies used by traditional cultures: hunting/gathering, horticulture, pastoralism, and agriculture. Fully explicated with cases, illustrations, and charts on topics as diverse as salmon ceremonies among Northwest Indians, contemporary Maya agriculture, and the sacred groves in southern China, this book gives a global view of these strategies. An important emphasis in this text is on the nature of contemporary ecological issues, how peoples worldwide adapt to them, and what the Western world can learn from their experiences. A perfect text for courses in anthropology, environmental studies, and sociology.
Download or read book Understanding World Regional Geography written by Erin H. Fouberg and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-12-27 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding World Regional Geography (UWRG) is a course designed to teach students to think and apply geographic concepts long after the course is over. Author Erin Fouberg draws from her expertise in geography education and research in student learning to create a product that has a strong pedagogical framework designed to engage students and deepen their understanding of the world by having them “DO” Geography. UWRG includes features that help students learn to read cultural and physical landscapes, ask geographic questions, apply geographic concepts, and make connections. It integrates 25 threshold concepts and teaches students how geographers apply these concepts and asks them to apply these concepts themselves. This enables them to grasp the complexities of the world and provides them with the knowledge and thinking skills necessary to understanding it. UWRG is the first introductory course to integrate ESRI ArcGIS Online thematic maps, enabling students to engage with course materials, see patterns, and answer geographic questions.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Borderlands of the Iberian World written by Danna A. Levin Rojo and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-06 with total page 904 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collaborative multi-authored volume integrates interdisciplinary approaches to ethnic, imperial, and national borderlands in the Iberian World (16th to early 19th centuries). It illustrates the historical processes that produced borderlands in the Americas and connected them to global circuits of exchange and migration in the early modern world. The book offers a balanced state-of-the-art educational tool representing innovative research for teaching and scholarship. Its geographical scope encompasses imperial borderlands in what today is northern Mexico and southern United States; the greater Caribbean basin, including cross-imperial borderlands among the island archipelagos and Central America; the greater Paraguayan river basin, including the Gran Chaco, lowland Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia; the Amazonian borderlands; the grasslands and steppes of southern Argentina and Chile; and Iberian trade and religious networks connecting the Americas to Africa and Asia. The volume is structured around the following broad themes: environmental change and humanly crafted landscapes; the role of indigenous allies in the Spanish and Portuguese military expeditions; negotiations of power across imperial lines and indigenous chiefdoms; the parallel development of subsistence and commercial economies across terrestrial and maritime trade routes; labor and the corridors of forced and free migration that led to changing social and ethnic identities; histories of science and cartography; Christian missions, music, and visual arts; gender and sexuality, emphasizing distinct roles and experiences documented for men and women in the borderlands. While centered in the colonial era, it is framed by pre-contact Mesoamerican borderlands and nineteenth-century national developments for those regions where the continuity of inter-ethnic relations and economic networks between the colonial and national periods is particularly salient, like the central Andes, lowland Bolivia, central Brazil, and the Mapuche/Pehuenche captaincies in South America. All the contributors are highly recognized scholars, representing different disciplines and academic traditions in North America, Latin America and Europe.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Borderlands of the Iberian World written by Danna A. Levin Rojo and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-06 with total page 904 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collaborative multi-authored volume integrates interdisciplinary approaches to ethnic, imperial, and national borderlands in the Iberian World (16th to early 19th centuries). It illustrates the historical processes that produced borderlands in the Americas and connected them to global circuits of exchange and migration in the early modern world. The book offers a balanced state-of-the-art educational tool representing innovative research for teaching and scholarship. Its geographical scope encompasses imperial borderlands in what today is northern Mexico and southern United States; the greater Caribbean basin, including cross-imperial borderlands among the island archipelagos and Central America; the greater Paraguayan river basin, including the Gran Chaco, lowland Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia; the Amazonian borderlands; the grasslands and steppes of southern Argentina and Chile; and Iberian trade and religious networks connecting the Americas to Africa and Asia. The volume is structured around the following broad themes: environmental change and humanly crafted landscapes; the role of indigenous allies in the Spanish and Portuguese military expeditions; negotiations of power across imperial lines and indigenous chiefdoms; the parallel development of subsistence and commercial economies across terrestrial and maritime trade routes; labor and the corridors of forced and free migration that led to changing social and ethnic identities; histories of science and cartography; Christian missions, music, and visual arts; gender and sexuality, emphasizing distinct roles and experiences documented for men and women in the borderlands. While centered in the colonial era, it is framed by pre-contact Mesoamerican borderlands and nineteenth-century national developments for those regions where the continuity of inter-ethnic relations and economic networks between the colonial and national periods is particularly salient, like the central Andes, lowland Bolivia, central Brazil, and the Mapuche/Pehuenche captaincies in South America. All the contributors are highly recognized scholars, representing different disciplines and academic traditions in North America, Latin America and Europe.
Download or read book Plant Biology and Biotechnology written by Bir Bahadur and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a much-needed compilation of essential reviews on diverse aspects of plant biology, written by eminent botanists. These reviews effectively cover a wide range of aspects of plant biology that have contemporary relevance. At the same time they integrate classical morphology with molecular biology, physiology with pattern formation, growth with genomics, development with morphogenesis, and classical crop-improvement techniques with modern breeding methodologies. Classical botany has been transformed into cutting-edge plant biology, thus providing the theoretical basis for plant biotechnology. It goes without saying that biotechnology has emerged as a powerful discipline of Biology in the last three decades. Biotechnological tools, techniques and information, used in combination with appropriate planning and execution, have already contributed significantly to economic growth and development. It is estimated that in the next decade or two, products and processes made possible by biotechnology will account for over 60% of worldwide commerce and output. There is, therefore, a need to arrive at a general understanding and common approach to issues related to the nature, possession, conservation and use of biodiversity, as it provides the raw material for biotechnology. More than 90% of the total requirements for the biotechnology industry are contributed by plants and microbes, in terms of goods and services. There are however substantial plant and microbial resources that are waiting for biotechnological exploitation in the near future through effective bioprospection. In order to exploit plants and microbes for their useful products and processes, we need to first understand their basic structure, organization, growth and development, cellular process and overall biology. We also need to identify and develop strategies to improve the productivity of plants. In view of the above, in this two-volume book on plant biology and biotechnology, the first volume is devoted to various aspects of plant biology and crop improvement. It includes 33 chapters contributed by 50 researchers, each of which is an expert in his/her own field of research. The book begins with an introductory chapter that gives a lucid account on the past, present and future of plant biology, thereby providing a perfect historical foundation for the chapters that follow. Four chapters are devoted to details on the structural and developmental aspects of the structures of plants and their principal organs. These chapters provide the molecular biological basis for the regulation of morphogenesis of the form of plants and their organs, involving control at the cellular and tissue levels. Details on biodiversity, the basic raw material for biotechnology, are discussed in a separate chapter, in which emphasis is placed on the genetic, species and ecosystem diversities and their conservation. Since fungi and other microbes form an important component of the overall biodiversity, special attention is paid to the treatment of fungi and other microbes in this volume. Four chapters respectively deal with an overview of fungi, arbuscularmycorrhizae and their relation to the sustenance of plant wealth, diversity and practical applications of mushrooms, and lichens (associated with a photobiont). Microbial endosymbionts associated with plants and phosphate solubilizing microbes in the rhizosphere of plants are exhaustively treated in two separate chapters. The reproductive strategies of bryophytes and an overview on Cycads form the subject matter of another two chapters, thus fulfilling the need to deal with the non-flowering Embryophyte group of plants. Angiosperms, the most important group of plants from a biotechnological perspective, are examined exhaustively in this volume. The chapters on angiosperms provide an overview and cover the genetic basis of flowers development, pre-and post-fertilization reproductive growth and development, seed biology and technology, plant secondary metabolism, photosynthesis, and plant volatile chemicals. A special effort has been made to include important topics on crop improvement in this volume. The importance of pollination services, apomixes, male sterility, induced mutations, polyploidy and climate changes is discussed, each in a separate chapter. Microalgalnutra-pharmaceuticals, vegetable-oil-based nutraceuticals and the importance of alien crop resources and underutilized crops for food and nutritional security form the topics of three other chapters in this volume. There is also a special chapter on the applications of remote sensing in the plant sciences, which also provides information on biodiversity distribution. The editors of this volume believe the wide range of basic topics on plant biology that have great relevance in biotechnology covered will be of great interest to students, researchers and teachers of botany and plant biotechnology alike.
Download or read book Geopolitics and Empire written by Gerry Kearns and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-06-11 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geopolitics and Empire examines the relations between two phenomena that are central to modern conceptions of international relations. Geopolitics is the understanding of the inter-relations between empires, states, individuals, private companies, NGOs and multilateral agencies as these are expressed and shaped spatially. This view of the world achieved notoriety as the scientific basis claimed by Nazi ideologists of global conquest. However, under this or another name, similar sets of ideas were important on both sides of the Cold War and now have a renewed resonance in debates over the New World Order of the so-called Global War on Terror. Geopolitics is a way of describing the conflicts between states as constrained by both physical and economic space. It makes such conflicts seem inevitable. The argument of the book is that this view of the world continues to appear salient because it serves to make the projection of force overseas seem an inevitable aspect of the foreign policy of states. This quasi-Darwinian view of international relations makes the pursuit of Empire appear a responsibility of larger and more powerful states. Powerful states must become Empires or submit to others seeking something similar. In its associations with Empire, the study of Geopolitics returns continually to the ideas of a British geographer who never himself used the term. Halford Mackinder is the source of many of the ideas of Geopolitics and by examining his ideas both in their original context and as they have been repeatedly rediscovered and reinvented this book contributes to current discussions of the ideology and practices of the US Empire today.
Download or read book Footprints in the Soil written by Benno P Warkentin and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of science discipline is contributing valuable knowledge of the culture of soil understanding, of the conditions in society that fostered the ideas, and of why they developed in certain ways. This book is about the progressive “footprints made by scientists in the soil. It contains chapters chosen from important topics in the development of soil science, and tells the story of the people and the exciting ideas that contributed to our present understanding of soils. Initiated by discussions within the Soil Science Society of America and the International Union of Soil Sciences, this book uniquely illustrates the significance of soils to our society. It is planned for soils students, for various scientific disciplines, and for members of the public who show an increasing interest in soil. This book allows us to answer the questions: “How do we know what we know about soils? and “How did one step or idea lead to the next one? The chapters are written by an international group of authors, each with special interests, bound together by the central theme of soils and how we came to our present understanding of soils. Each concentrate on soil knowledge in the western world and draw primarily on written accounts available in English and European languages. Academics, graduate students, researchers and practitioners will gain new insights from these studies of how ideas in soil science and understanding of uses of soils developed. * Discusses tracing soils knowledge accumulated from Roman times, first by soil users and after 1800s by scientists * Offers ideas about how soils knowledge was influenced by the social context and by human needs * Combines the history of ideas with scientific knowledge of soils * Written by chapter authors who combine subject matter expertise with knowledge of practical soil uses, and provide numerous references for further study of the relevant literature
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Environmental Anthropology written by Helen Kopnina and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental Anthropology studies historic and present human-environment interactions. This volume illustrates the ways in which today's environmental anthropologists are constructing new paradigms for understanding the multiplicity of players, pressures, and ecologies in every environment, and the value of cultural knowledge of landscapes. This Handbook provides a comprehensive survey of contemporary topics in environmental anthropology and thorough discussions on the current state and prospective future of the field in seven key sections. As the contributions to this Handbook demonstrate, the subfield of environmental anthropology is responding to cultural adaptations and responses to environmental changes in multiple and complex ways. As a discipline concerned primarily with human-environment interaction, environmental anthropologists recognize that we are now working within a pressure cooker of rapid environmental damage that is forcing behavioural and often cultural changes around the world. As we see in the breadth of topics presented in this volume, these environmental challenges have inspired renewed foci on traditional topics such as food procurement, ethnobiology, and spiritual ecology; and a broad new range of subjects, such as resilience, nonhuman rights, architectural anthropology, industrialism, and education. This volume enables scholars and students quick access to both established and trending environmental anthropological explorations into theory, methodology and practice.
Download or read book Enclosed written by Liza Grandia and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This impassioned and rigorous analysis of the territorial plight of the Q'eqchi Maya of Guatemala highlights an urgent problem for indigenous communities around the world - repeated displacement from their lands. Liza Grandia uses the tools of ethnography, history, cartography, and ecology to explore the recurring enclosures of Guatemala's second largest indigenous group, who number a million strong. Having lost most of their highland territory to foreign coffee planters at the end of the 19th century, Q'eqchi' people began migrating into the lowland forests of northern Guatemala and southern Belize. Then, pushed deeper into the frontier by cattle ranchers, lowland Q'eqchi' found themselves in conflict with biodiversity conservationists who established protected areas across this region during the 1990s. The lowland, maize-growing Q'eqchi' of the 21st century face even more problems as they are swept into global markets through the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and the Puebla to Panama Plan (PPP). The waves of dispossession imposed upon them, driven by encroaching coffee plantations, cattle ranches, and protected areas, have unsettled these agrarian people. Enclosed describes how they have faced and survived their challenges and, in doing so, helps to explain what is happening in other contemporary enclosures of public "common" space. A Capell Family Book Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTLvmg3mHE8
Download or read book Nature and Culture written by Sarah Pilgrim and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a growing recognition that the diversity of life comprises both biological and cultural diversity. But this division is not universal and, in many cases, has been deepened by the common disciplinary divide between the natural and social sciences and our apparent need to manage and control nature. This book goes beyond divisive definitions and investigates the bridges linking biological and cultural diversity. The international team of authors explore the common drivers of loss, and argue that policy responses should target both forms of diversity in a novel integrative approach to conservation, thus reducing the gap between science, policy and practice. While conserving nature alongside human cultures presents unique challenges, this book forcefully shows that any hope for saving biological diversity is predicated on a concomitant effort to appreciate and protect cultural diversity.
Download or read book Methods in World History written by Arne Jarrick and published by Nordic Academic Press. This book was released on 2016-01-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Methods in World History is the first international volume that systematically addresses a number of methodological problems specific to the field of World History. Prompted by a lack of applicable works, the authors advocate a considerable sharpening of the tools used within the discipline. Theories constructed on poor foundations run an obvious risk of reinforcing flawed assumptions, and of propping up other, more ideological constructions. The dedicated critical approach outlined in this volume helps to mitigate such risks. Each essay addresses a particular issue, discussing its problems, giving practical examples, and offering solutions and ways of overcoming the difficulties involved. The perspectives are varied, the criticism focussed, and a common theme of coalescence is maintained throughout. This unique anthology will be of great use to advanced scholars of World History, and to students entering the field for the first time.
Download or read book American Wilderness written by Michael Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-03-08 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collected volume of original essays proposes to address the state of scholarship on the political, cultural, and intellectual history of Americans responses to wilderness from first contact to the present. While not bringing a synthetic narrative to wilderness, the volume will gather competing interpretations of wilderness in historical context.
