Seeking a Richer Harvest

Thurston, Tina L.; Fisher, Christopher T.

doi:10.1007/978-0-387-32762-4_1

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Population pressure may occur when population size reaches or exceeds the carrying capacity of resources within the environment. However, carrying capacity is notoriously difficult to calculate for human populations because yield can change with cultivation methods or available labour force and trade can transfer resource supplies over long distances (Thurston and Fisher, 2007). We therefore simplify carrying capacity here by assuming that each village will occupy only one patch and calculate population pressure by the proportion of surrounding patches occupied by other villages.…”

Section: Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A formal test using agent-based models of the circumscription theory for the evolution of social complexity

Williams,

Mesoudi

2023

Preprint

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The emergence of social complexity in human societies is a long-debated topic in archaeology, with competing hypotheses proposed and argued for using archaeological evidence. However, formal testing of these hypotheses is generally lacking. Here, we present and analyse an agent-based model to test the effect of environmental, resource, and social barriers to population movement – collectively known as ‘circumscription’ – on the rate of hierarchy formation. The results show that social circumscription is the largest driver of social complexity by increasing proximity between settlements. Environmental and resource circumscription can negatively impact the emergence of social complexity when the conditions separate the population spatially but can amplify social complexity when the conditions increase proximity between settlements. In providing a detailed test of the assumptions and predictions of circumscription theory, our abstract model provides insight into the conditions that are most likely to result in the emergence of social complexity in the real world.

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Section: Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A formal test using agent-based models of the circumscription theory for the evolution of social complexity

Williams,

Mesoudi

2023

Preprint

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“…(1) controlled use of fire with such intensity, frequency, duration and scale as to achieve total ecosystem change or avoidance of catastrophic natural fire in dense forests; (2) deviation, narrowing or expansion of rivers, lakes, coastal systems or wetlands to settle land and obtain water for domestic purposes or develop agriculture, fishing and aquaculture; (3) construction of anthropogenic soils by re-depositing sediments, inducing erosion, pyrolysis or enhancing the soil microbiota; (4) domestication and selection of many plant and animal species; (5) human-wildlife behavioural co-evolution; (6) introductions of new species into ecological systems or translocations of existing ones and changes in species distribution and abundance; (7) moulding of landscapes by managing vegetation succession; and (8) designation and guardianship of sacred spaces (Fedick 1991, Marris 2006, Thurston & Fisher 2007, Erickson 2008, Ford & Nigh 2015, Armstrong et al 2017.…”

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confidence: 99%

The concept of ‘palimpsest’ in a reconceptualization of biodiversity conservation

Rivera-Núñez

Fargher²

2020

Envir. Conserv.

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Summary The concept of the Anthropocene has highlighted the significant global impact of human activities on ecological systems on a geological scale (Crutzen 2002). This concept has come to significantly influence a scientific and political agenda orientated towards documenting and denouncing multiple negative anthropogenic factors that have led to global change. Nevertheless, not all large-scale environmental transformations by human societies have been intrinsically destructive. Many indigenous communities in the Neotropics, Palearctic, sub-Saharan Africa, North America, Indo-Malaya and Australasia have radically – albeit often constructively – modified the physical and biotic conditions of the ecological systems that they inhabit (Ellis 2015). It is necessary to revise the assumption that human actions always degrade the environment, through a reconceptualization that we have previously called ‘anthropogenesis’ (Rivera-Núñez et al. 2020). Instead of the naïve portrayal of the ‘good Anthropocene’ (Hamilton 2015, Fremaux & Barry 2019), anthropogenesis seeks to enrich the biodiversity debate with the historical human expressions of constructed environments that the conservation-focused ‘Edenic sciences’ and the ‘pristine syndrome’ (Robbins & Moore 2013) tend to ignore, or ‘Anthropo-not-see’ (de la Cadena 2019). The objective of this comment paper is to urge the academic community, grassroots organizations and governments to employ a concept of ‘palimpsest’ (from the Ancient Greek for ‘again scraped’, implying that something is scraped clear ready to be used again) in the reconceptualization of biodiversity conservation from a historical perspective that implements research and policy agendas that incorporate the human propensity for environmental construction in a deeper and more inclusive manner.

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Effects of Agriculture on Environmental and Human Health

Melby¹,

Mauger²

2016

A Companion to the Anthropology of Environmental Health

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Seeking a Richer Harvest

Cited by 9 publications

References 81 publications

A formal test using agent-based models of the circumscription theory for the evolution of social complexity

A formal test using agent-based models of the circumscription theory for the evolution of social complexity

The concept of ‘palimpsest’ in a reconceptualization of biodiversity conservation

Effects of Agriculture on Environmental and Human Health

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