|
Idaho
Librarian | ||||||||||||||
| Contents
|
Wilderness and Political Ecology came out of a course on pre-Columbian aboriginal impacts taught by Charles Kay at Utah State University during the spring of 1998. Dr. Kay wrote three of the chapters, and experts in their respective fields wrote the remaining chapters. The basic premise in this book is that the assumption that the Americas were a wilderness untouched by humans and almost void of native people is incorrect. The native people modified their environment in many ways. Each contributor discusses the subject using his own and others’ research to show that the Native Americans had a great influence on their environment throughout the Americas. There was evidence of human-wildlife competition for food and that humans used fire to enhance their environment. The native people were more numerous than originally thought and had a major impact on their environment. They didn’t necessarily conserve the land or the animals, as Jack Broughton found in two archaeological case studies in the San Francisco and Sacramento areas. The Emeryville shellmound on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay, where signs of 1900 years of human habitation were discovered, indicated that the people had to hunt for deer and elk farther away from their habitation as they depleted them closer to home. The second case study on numerous sites in the Sacramento Valley also showed this to be true. William
Hildebrand and Terry Jones found the same pattern when they discuss the
archaeological sites and the Native American hunting habits of the
pinniped populations and the pinniped depletion along the California and
Oregon coast. Hildebrand and Jones discuss differences between what the
ethnographic and archaeological records show, but point out ‘that it is
important to stress that both perspectives agree that Native American
populations had significant influence on the conditions of past
ecosystems” (p.108). When
the Europeans first came to the Americas, they found small populations of
people, park-like conditions and large numbers of wildlife.
One of the premises of this book is that people were more numerous
at one time and they had hunted the wildlife almost to extinction in some
areas. The argument is that
European diseases preceded the main influx of European explorers, reducing
the number of humans, and the wildlife had a chance to repopulate the
areas. The research also
shows that the environment dictated how the Native Americans adapted for
their survival. Kay sums up
the book, noting that “The authors of this edited volume are in general
agreement that native people had a significant impact on their
environment” (p.238) but apparently they do not agree on all points.
The quality
of the research in the book is excellent and well documented.
It is also fascinating to see how the various researchers address
the topic in their discussions. There
is an extensive bibliography, and several of the chapters include
endnotes. A list of
contributors includes brief biographical information about each person.
The book does have one major weakness: it does not have an index.
It is still an interesting and informative book for majors in
anthropology and ecology, both for upper-division and graduate students
and for the professional in the field.
Anyone interested in the subject and in the nature, environment and
ecology of the Americas will also find it useful.
I would recommend it for purchase by academic, professional and
museum libraries.
| |||||||||||||
