Full Description
This book uses leading figures in the study of biological and human ecology to evaluate the criticisms and propose ways to advance the state of knowledge in ecological research. It examines the loss of explanatory value when the ecosystem concept in anthropology is applied to human systems.
Contents
About the Series -- Preface -- Assessment of Past and Present Approaches -- Limitations and Advances in Ecosystems Research -- Historical Origins of the Ecosystem Concept in Biology -- Anthropology, Evolutionary Ecology, and the Explanatory Limitations of the Ecosystem Concept -- The Ecosystem Concept in Archaeology -- Human Biology and the Development of an Ecosystem Approach -- Environmental Events and the Ecology of Cumulative Change -- New Directions in Resolving the Problem of Time and of Boundary Definition in Ecosystems -- Trade, Environment, and the Reproduction of Local Systems in the Moluccas -- Ecosystems over Time: The Study of Migration in "Long Run" Perspective -- Reflections on an Alpine Village as Ecosystem -- New Directions in Resolving the Problems of Hierarchical Level, Scale, and Data Collection -- Remote Sensing, Discovery, and Generalizations in Human Ecology -- Ecosystems and Methodological Problems in Ecological Anthropology -- The Problem of Analytical Level Shifting in Amazonian Ecosystem Research -- Ecosystems, Environmentalism, Resource Conservation, and Anthropological Research
