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World Ecological Degradation
Deforestation, soil runoff, salination, pollution. While recurrent themes of the contemporary world, they are not new to us. In this broad sweeping review of the environmental impacts of human settlement and development worldwide over the past 5,000 years, Sing C. Chew shows that these processes are as old as civilization itself. With examples ranging from Ancient Mesopotamia to Malaya, Mycenaean Greece to Ming China, Chew shows that the processes of population growth, intensive resource accumulation, and urbanization in ancient and modern societies almost universally bring on ecological disaster, which often contributes to the decline and fall of that society. He then turns his eye to the development of the modern European world-system and its impact on the environment. Challenging us to change these long-term trends, Chew also traces the existence of environmental conservation ideas and movements over the span of 5,000 years. Can we do it? Look at Chew's evidence of the past five millennia and decide. Ideal for courses in environmental history, anthropology, and sociology, and world-systems theory.
The 21st Century Singularity and Global Futures
This book introduces a 'Big History' perspective to understand the acceleration of social, technological and economic trends towards a near-term singularity, marking a radical turning point in the evolution of our planet. It traces the emergence of accelerating innovation rates through global history and highlights major historical transformations throughout the evolution of life, humans, and civilization. The authors pursue an interdisciplinary approach, also drawing on concepts from physics and evolutionary biology, to offer potential models of the underlying mechanisms driving this acceleration, along with potential clues on how it might progress. The contributions gathered here are divid...
The Historical Evolution of World-Systems
The rise and decline of great powers remains a fascinating topic of vigorous debate. This book brings together leading scholars to explore the historical evolution of world systems through examining the ebb and flow of great powers over time, with particular emphasis on early time periods. The book advances understanding of the regularities in the dynamics of empire and the expansion of political, social and economic interaction networks, from the Bronze Age forward. The authors analyze the expansion and contraction of cross-cultural trade networks and systems of competing and allying political groupings. In premodern times, theses ranged from small local trading networks (even the very small ones of hunting-gathering peoples) to the vast Mongol world-system. Within such systems, there is usually one, or a very few, hegemonic powers. How they achieve dominance and how transitions lead to systems change are important topics, particularly at a time when the United States' position is in flux. The chapters in this book review several recent approaches and present a wealth of new findings.
My Father's World
My Father's World is a memorial volume celebrating the life of Dr. Reuben G. Bullard and it focuses on the archaeology and history of the Mediterranean world. The essays in this volume are all written by former students of Dr. Bullard, and the diverse range of topics highlights his broad interests in geology, archaeology, and biblical studies. Bullard was a long time Professor of Geology and Archaeology at Cincinnati Christian University. He pioneered the field of Archaeological Geology in the 1960s at Tell Gezer.
Introduction to the Environmental Humanities
In an era of climate change, deforestation, melting ice caps, poisoned environments, and species loss, many people are turning to the power of the arts and humanities for sustainable solutions to global ecological problems. Introduction to the Environmental Humanities offers a practical and accessible guide to this dynamic and interdisciplinary field. This book provides an overview of the Environmental Humanities’ evolution from the activist movements of the early and mid-twentieth century to more recent debates over climate change, sustainability, energy policy, and habitat degradation in the Anthropocene era. The text introduces readers to seminal writings, artworks, campaigns, and movem...
Pre-Industrial Korea and Japan in Environmental Perspective
Taking the history of Japan and Korea and their environmental interactions from late Pleistocene down to about 1870 AD, this work aims to make a convincing case for viewing the two countries together, looking at their pre-industrial experiences.
Globalization and the Environment
The articles in this volume examine how the world-economy and related non-economic forms of global structuring have impacted the natural environment and the living conditions of human populations across the globe, in areas as diverse as Ancient Egypt and the modern Amazon
The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalization
This unique collection applies globalization concepts to the discipline of archaeology, using a wide range of global case studies from a group of international specialists. The volume spans from as early as 10,000 cal. BP to the modern era, analysing the relationship between material culture, complex connectivities between communities and groups, and cultural change. Each contributor considers globalization ideas explicitly to explore the socio-cultural connectivities of the past. In considering social practices shared between different historic groups, and also the expression of their respective identities, the papers in this volume illustrate the potential of globalization thinking to brid...
Global Ecology and Unequal Exchange
In modern society, we tend to have faith in technology. But is our concept of ‘technology’ itself a cultural illusion? This book challenges the idea that humanity as a whole is united in a common development toward increasingly efficient technologies. Instead it argues that modern technology implies a kind of global ‘zero-sum game’ involving uneven resource flows, which make it possible for wealthier parts of global society to save time and space at the expense of humans and environments in the poorer parts. We tend to think of the functioning of machines as if it was detached from the social relations of exchange which make machines economically and physically possible (in some area...
The History and Natural History of Spices
Spices have been highly valued since at least the Bronze Age, with the so-called Spice Trade, spanning Asia to the Mediterranean, developing from the late centuries BC. By the first century AD, Roman society spent vast sums fuelling their demand for spices, importing black pepper from India and other exotics from further afield. Importing spices from the east was a daunting and dangerous task, whether by ship across the Indian Ocean, a perilous round journey of many months, or by caravan overland along the myriad routings of the Silk Road, or other trade routes. The search for spices in the 15th and 16th centuries led to Columbus' discovery of America (and the discovery of chilli in Cuba and Hispaniola); Vasco da Gama's proving of the route to India around the coast of Africa; and Magellan's discovery of the western route to the Spice Islands. This comprehensive book both reviews spices and their histories of uses, botanical descriptions and classifications, as well as delving into the trade routes and importance of spice through history in driving global events.
