Imperfect Balance : : Landscape Transformations in the Pre-Columbian Americas / / ed. by David Lentz.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Beach, Timothy,; Brenner, Mark,; Churchill, Steven P.,; Curtis, Jason H.,; D'Altroy, Terence N.,; Daly, Douglas C.,; Denevan, William M.,; Dunning, Nicholas,; Erickson, Clark L.,; Fish, Suzanne K.,; Fritz, Gayle J.,; Greller, Andrew M.,; Hodell, David A.,; Lentz, David L.,; Luteyn, James L.,; Mcclung De Tapia, Emily,; Mitchell, John D.,; Peters, Charles M.,; Roosevelt, Anna C.,; Spencer, Charles S.,
• HerausgeberIn: Lentz, David,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2000]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2000
• Language: English
• Series: Historical Ecology Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (788 p.) :; 122 figures

We often envision the New World before the arrival of the Europeans as a land of pristine natural beauty and undisturbed environments. However, David Lentz offers an alternative view by detailing the impact of native cultures on these ecosystems prior to their contact with Europeans. Drawing on a wide range of experts from the fields of paleoclimatology, historical ecology, paleontology, botany, geology, conservation science, and resource management, this book unlocks the secret of how the Western Hemisphere's indigenous inhabitants influenced and transformed their natural environment.A rare combination of collaborators uncovers the changes that took place in North America, Mexico, Central America, the Andes, and Amazonia. Each section of the book has been comprehensively arranged so that a botanical description of the natural vegetation of the region is coupled with a set of case studies outlining local human influences. From modifications of vegetation, to changes in soil, wildlife, microclimate, hydrology, and the land surface itself, this collection addresses one of the great issues of our time: the human modification of the earth.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- List of Contributors -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Definitions and Conceptual Underpinnings -- 2. Climate Change in the Northern American Tropics and Subtropics since the Last Ice Age: Implications for Environment and Culture -- 3. Vegetation in the Floristic Regions of North and Central America -- 4. Anthropocentric FoodWebs in the Precolumbian Americas -- 5. Prehispanic Agricultural Systems in the Basin of Mexico -- 6. PrehispanicWater Management and Agricultural Intensification in Mexico and Venezuela: Implications for Contemporary Ecological Planning -- 7. Stability and Instability in Prehispanic Maya Landscapes -- 8. Precolumbian Silviculture and Indigenous Management of Neotropical Forests -- 9. Native Farming Systems and Ecosystems in the Mississippi River Valley -- 10. Hohokam Impacts on Sonoran Desert Environment -- 11. Vegetation of the Tropical Andes: An Overview -- 12. The Lake Titicaca Basin: A Precolumbian Built Landscape -- 13. Andean Land Use at the Cusp of History -- 14. Lowland Vegetation of Tropical South America: An Overview -- 15. The Lower Amazon: A Dynamic Human Habitat -- Summary and Conclusions -- Index