Thursday, August 7, 2008: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
102 C, Midwest Airlines Center
SYMP 16 - Combining Ecological and Archaeological Knowledge to Better Understand the Reciprocal Dynamics of People and the Ecosystems That Sustain Them
This symposium will highlight the integration of archaeological and ecological data, using novel analytical frameworks, to improve our understanding of the reciprocal interactions of people, cultures, and ecosystems. Our goal includes providing information that will inform understanding of the roles that people have played over several millennia of the development of our increasingly human-influenced world. Studies now make clear that past land and resource use is important in structuring modern ecosystems. In North America, most of this work has focused on large-scale, post-colonial activities such as agriculture, logging, grazing, and fire suppression. But what about human activities prior to European contact? Collaborative research between archaeologists and ecologists, with an explicit focus on documenting the long-term processes and mechanisms that led to the contemporary landscape, is uncommon but sorely needed to inform the increasing emphasis on understanding sustainable societies (i.e., those in which the health of both people and the ecosystems that sustain them are promoted and maintained). A growing body of archaeological evidence shows that the indigenous people of the Americas significantly influenced a variety of ecosystems. Several ongoing interdisciplinary teams have produced a rich database from which the long-term history and prehistory of people and their ecosystems can be reconstructed and analyzed. This symposium will bring together anthropologists/archaeologists and ecologists, including those with particular analytical expertise, from 3 such studies (Hawaiian archipelago, southwestern desert, North Pacific) to compare and contrast the history of people, their cultures and natural resource economies, and the diversity and dynamics of their ecosystems in ancient and contemporary times. The presentations will include 3 archaeological background talks, 3 ecological talks, and 3 talks that present different modeling approaches to analyzing and integrating archaeological, social, and ecological data. This format, along with coordination among speakers in preparing their talks, will highlight similarities and differences in the history of these 3 distinct regions and cultures. The symposium will conclude with a panel of all speakers to synthesize and answer questions from the audience.
Organizer:Nancy J. Huntly, National Science Foundation
Co-organizers:John M. Briggs, Arizona State University
Charlotte T. Lee, Stanford University
Moderator:Spencer A. Wood, University of British Columbia
8:00 AM Introductory Remarks
8:05 AMSYMP 16-2Changing agricultural practice, population, and social complexity in Hawai'i
Michael W. Graves, University of New Mexico
8:25 AMSYMP 16-3The prehistoric agricultural landscapes of the American Southwest: Social, environmental, and economic contexts of past land use
Melissa Kruse, Arizona State University
8:45 AMSYMP 16-4Climate change, demographic expansion, and coupled social and natural dynamics in the western Gulf of Alaska over the last 5000 years
Herbert Maschner, Idaho State University, Matthew Betts, Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, Joseph Cornell, Idaho State University, Bruce Finney, Idaho State University, Nancy J. Huntly, National Science Foundation, James Jordan, Antioch University, Nicole Misarti, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Katherine Reedy-Maschner, Idaho State University, Roly Russell, Columbia University, Spencer A. Wood, University of British Columbia
9:05 AMSYMP 16-5Long-term human modification of dryland agricultural potential
Anthony S. Hartshorn, Arizona State University, Charlotte T. Lee, Stanford University, Molly Meyer, Stanford University, Thegn N. Ladefoged, The university of New Zealand, Michael W. Graves, University of New Mexico, Patrick Kirch, University of California, Oliver A. Chadwick, University of California, Peter M. Vitousek, Stanford University
9:25 AMSYMP 16-1Impacts of prehistoric land use intensity on ecological legacies in the arid, US Southwest
Sharon J. Hall, Arizona State University, John M. Briggs, Arizona State University, Hoski Schaafsma, Arizona State University, Jolene Trujillo, Arizona State University
9:45 AM Break
9:55 AMSYMP 16-6Landscape and food web interactions of a North Pacific hunter-gatherer society
Nancy J. Huntly, National Science Foundation, Bruce Finney, Idaho State University, James Jordan, Antioch University, Herb Maschner, Idaho State University, Katherine Reedy-Maschner, Idaho State University, Faith Rudebusch, Idaho State University, Sarah Schoen, Idaho State University, Peter Sheridan, Idaho State University, Michael Gene Widmer, Idaho State University
10:15 AMSYMP 16-7Food-dependent demography: Dynamically linking environment and population
Charlotte T. Lee, Stanford University, Shripad Tuljapurkar, Stanford University
10:35 AMSYMP 16-8Ecological variation, institutional adaptation, and long-term social-ecological change: Lessons from the past
J. Marty Anderies, Arizona State University, Michael Merrill, Arizona State University
10:55 AMSYMP 16-9Structural and dynamical roles of preindustrial people in food webs of the North Pacific
Jennifer A. Dunne, Santa Fe Institute, Matthew Betts, Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, Nancy J. Huntly, National Science Foundation, Herbert Maschner, Idaho State University, Roly Russell, Columbia University, Richard J. Williams, Microsoft Research Ltd., Spencer A. Wood, University of British Columbia
11:15 AM Panel Discussion

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See more of The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 -- August 8, 2008)