Description:
Exploring the relationship between Native Americans and the natural world, Biodiversity and Native America questions the widespread view that indigenous peoples had minimal ecological impact in North America. Introducing a variety of perspectives - ethnopharmacological, ethnographic, archaeological, and biological - this volume shows that Native Americans were active managers of natural ecological systems. The book covers groups from the sophisticated agriculturalists of the Mississippi River drainage region to the low-density hunter-gatherers of arid western North America.
This book allows readers to develop accurate restoration, management, and conservation models through a thorough knowledge of native peoples' ecological history and dynamics. It also illustrates how indigenous peoples affected environmental patterns and processes, improving crop diversity and agricultural patterns.
Brief description:
Paul E. Minnis, Professor of Anthroplogy at the University of Oklahoma, is the editor of Ethnobotany: A Reader and coeditor of Biodiversity and Native America.
Review Quotes: "The unescapable conclusion of . . . this volume is that the environment and landscape of North America are better described as 'managed' than 'wild' at the time of European arrival. . . . Biodiversity and Native America should be required reading for specialists in American Indians, American environmental history, and North American biology."--Greg O'Brien, author of The Timeline of Native Americans