This collection of studies by anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, and biologists is an important contribution to the emerging field of historical ecology. The book combines cutting-edge research with new perspectives to emphasize the close relationship between humans and their natural environment.

Contributors examine how alterations in the natural world mirror human cultures, societies, and languages. Treating the landscape like a text, these researchers decipher patterns and meaning in the Ecuadorian Andes, Amazonia, the desert coast of Peru, and other regions in the neotropics. They show how local peoples have changed the landscape over time to fit their needs by managing and modifying species diversity, enhancing landscape heterogeneity, and controlling ecological disturbance. In turn, the environment itself becomes a form of architecture rich with historical and archaeological significance.

Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology explores thousands of years of ecological history while also addressing important contemporary issues, such as biodiversity and genetic variation and change. Engagingly written and expertly researched, this book introduces and exemplifies a unique method for better understanding the link between humans and the biosphere.

This collection of studies by anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, and biologists is an important contribution to the emerging field of historical ecology. The book combines cutting-edge research with new perspectives to emphasize the close relationship between humans and their natural environment.

Contributors examine how alterations in the natural world mirror human cultures, societies, and languages. Treating the landscape like a text, these researchers decipher patterns and meaning in the Ecuadorian Andes, Amazonia, the desert coast of Peru, and other regions in the neotropics. They show how local peoples have changed the landscape over time to fit their needs by managing and modifying species diversity, enhancing landscape heterogeneity, and controlling ecological disturbance. In turn, the environment itself becomes a form of architecture rich with historical and archaeological significance.

Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology explores thousands of years of ecological history while also addressing important contemporary issues, such as biodiversity and genetic variation and change. Engagingly written and expertly researched, this book introduces and exemplifies a unique method for better understanding the link between humans and the biosphere.

Preface
Contributors
Time, Complexity, and Historical Ecology, by William Balee and Clark L. Erickson
Part 1
1. The Feral Forests of the Eastern Peten, by David G. Campbell, Anabel Ford, Karen S. Lowell, Jay Walker, Jeffrey K. Lake, Constanza Ocampo-Raeder, Andrew Townesmith, and Michael Balick
2. A Neotropical Framework for Terra Preta, by Elizabeth Graham
3. Domesticated Food and Society in Early Coastal Peru, by Christine A. Hastorf
4. Microvertebrate Synecology and Anthropogenic Footprints in the Forested Neotropics, by Peter W. Stahl
Part 2
5. Pre-European Forest Cultivation in Amazonia, by William M. Denevan
6. Fruit Trees and the Transition to Food Production in Amazonia, by Charles R. Clement
7. The Historical Ecology of a Complex Landscape in Bolivia, Clark L. Erickson and William Balee
8. The Domesticated Landscapes of the Bolivian Amazon, by Clark L. Erickson
9. Political Economy and Pre-Columbian Landscape Transformations in Central Amazonia, by Eduardo G. Neves and James B. Petersen
10. History, Ecology, and Alterity: Visualizing Polity in Ancient Amazonia, by Michael Heckenberger
11. Between the Ship and the Bulldozer: Historical Ecology of Guaja Subsistence, Sociality, and Symbolism After 1500, by Loretta A. Cormier
12. Landscapes of the Past, Footprints of the Future: Historical Ecology and the Study of Contemporary Land-Use Change in the Amazon, by Eduardo S. Brondizio
Index