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ABSTRACT
The past can be characterized by periods of changing and stable relationships between human groups and their environment. In this article, I argue that use of "resilience theory" as a conceptual framework will assist archaeologists in interpreting the past in ways that are interesting and potentially relevant to contemporary issues. Many of the authors in this "In Focus" section primarily concentrate on the relationships associated with patterns of human extraction of resources and the impacts of those human activities on the continuing condition of the ecosystem. These processes are, of course, embedded in a complex web of relationships that are based on multiple interactions of underlying patterns and processes of both the ecological and social domains. In this article, I introduce a resilience theory perspective to argue that these transformations were characterized by very different reorganizations of the socioecological landscape and were the product of a variety of factors that operated at different scales of geography, time, and social organization. [Keywords: resilience theory, socioecological systems, panarchy, land degradation]
THERE IS NO GREATER CHALLENGE than to seek a better understanding of the interaction between society and the environment, to use that knowledge to preserve, nurture, and perhaps even improve on what we value in the environment, and, further, to ensure that our future actions are consistent with these goals. These interactions can best be understood from a perspective that takes those long-term dynamics into account and addresses questions from an integrated, often interdisciplinary, perspective on human societies and biophysical environments (Brand 1999). Although this issue has attracted wide anthropological attention only in recent decades, the underlying, socioecological interactions are millennia old and derive, in part, from the legacies of past choices, beliefs, and actions (Crumley 1994; McIntosh et al. 2000; Redman 1999; Redman et al. 2004). In theory, archaeology and anthropology are ideally suited to make invaluable contributions to the management of the globe for a sustainable future; in practice, however, few synergies have materialized.
There is a rich intellectual history of anthropologists interested in human-environmental relations. Prominent among them are the cultural ecologists who contributed a series of important studies (Butzer 1982; Crumley 1994; Moran 1990; Steward 1955; Vayda 1969; Watson and Watson 1969). Despite this active intellectual tradition within archaeology and anthropology,...