The Anthropology Of Climate Change An Historical Reader

About this book

The contemporary field of research and policy on climate change is dominated by a presentist bias, which ignores insights from millennia of scholarly attention to the relationship between climate and society. This volume seeks to redress this bias by reprinting studies of the anthropology of climate and climate change from early 20th-century to early 21st-century Anthropology, including some classical works that have influenced anthropological thinking about climate. These studies reflect the unique contribution that Anthropology can make to the field of climate change, through study of (1) historic and prehistoric records of human impact from and response to prior periods of climate perturbation and change, (2) the impact from and response to climate change at the local, community level, (3) the impact on global debates about climate change from North-South post-colonial histories, and (4) the social dimensions of climate change science. Covers the historic and prehistoric records of human impact from and response to prior periods of climate change, including the impact and response to climate change at the local level; Discusses the impact on global debates about climate change from North-South post-colonial histories and the social dimensions of the science of climate change. Includes coverage of topics such as environmental determinism, climatic events as social catalysts, climatic disasters and societal collapse, and ethno-meteorology. Available as an e-text and on CourseSmart. An ideal text for courses in climate change, human/cultural ecology, environmental anthropology and archaeology, disaster studies, environmental sciences, science and technology studies, history of science, and conservation and development studies.