The Power of Nature

Archaeology and Human-Environmental Dynamics

Monica L. Smith

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781646423514
• eBook ISBN: 9781646423521
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

In The Power of Nature archaeologists address the force and impact of nature relative to human knowledge, action, and volition. Case studies from around the world focusing on different levels of sociopolitical complexity—ranging from early agricultural societies to states and empires—address the ways in which nature retains the upper hand in human agentive environmental discourse, providing an opportunity for an insightful perspective on the current anthropological emphasis on how humans affect the environment.
 
Climatic events, pathogens, and animals as nonhuman agents, ranging in size from viruses to mega-storms, have presented our species with dynamic conditions that overwhelm human capacities. In some cases, people have modified architecture to deal with a constant onslaught of storms, as in Japan or the Caribbean; in other cases, they have welcomed the occasional natural disaster as a chance to start fresh or to put into place new ideas and practices, as in the case of ancient Roman cities. Using the concept of "agency" as one in which multiple sentient and nonhuman actors interact in a landscape, and exploring locations such as the Caribbean, the Pacific, South Asia, the Andes, the Mediterranean, Mesoamerica, North America, and the Arctic, the authors provide compelling explanations of the effect of an entire realm of natural powers that beset human societies past and present—from storms, earthquakes, and fires to vegetation, domestic animals, and wild birds. Throughout, the emphasis is on the philosophical and engineering adjustments that people make to stay resilient when facing the perpetual changes of the natural world.
 
Using an archaeological perspective, The Power of Nature illustrates and analyzes the many
ways that people do not control their environments. It will be of interest to archaeologists, as well as scholars in science, biology, botany, forestry, urban studies, and disaster management.
 
Contributors: Steven Ammeran, Traci Ardren, Katelyn J. Bishop, Karen Mohr Chávez, Sergio Chávez, Stanislava Chávez, Emelie Cobb, Jago Cooper, Harper Dine, Chelsea Fisher, Jennifer Huebert, Dale L. Hutchinson, Sara L. Juengst, Kanika Kalra, François Oliva, Matthew C. Peros, Jordan Pickett, Seth Quintus, John Robb, Monica L. Smith, Jillian A. Swift, Silvia Tomášková, Kyungsoo Yoo
 
 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• 1. Nature as Agent: Mass-Event, Incremental, and Biotic Perspectives
• 2. Hurricanes as Agents of Cultural Change: Integrating Paleotempestology and the Archaeological Record
• 3. Navigating the Scarcity and Abundance of Monsoonal Rainfall in South Asia
• 4. Earthquakes and Agency in the Roman Mediterranean: Resilience and Transformation
• 5. Fire as an Agentive Force, from Forest to Hearth to Forest Again
• 6. Pathogens with Power: How Diseases Navigate Human Societies
• 7. Vegetative Agency and Social Memory in Houselots of the Ancient Maya
• 8. Bird Behavior and Biology: The Agentive Role of Birds in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
• 9. Rats, Bats, and Birds: The Role of Non-Human Ecosystem Engineers in Pre-European Polynesian Agriculture
• 10. Animal Agents in the Human Environment
• 11. Reindeer as a Toggle: Animal Agency in Domestication
• 12. The End of the World (Again)
• Index
• Contributors