Anthropology, Space, and Geographic Information Systems

by Mark Aldenderfer (Editor), Herbert D. G. Maschner (Editor)

Overview

Major advances in the use of geographic information systems have been made in both anthropology and archaeology. Yet there are few published discussions of these new applications and their use in solving complex problems. This book explores these techniques, showing how they have been successfully deployed to pursue research previously considered too difficult--or impossible--to undertake. Among the projects described here are studies of land degradation in the Peruvian Amazon, settlement patterns in the Pacific northwest, ethnic distribution within the Los Angeles garment industry, and prehistoric sociopolitical development among the Anasazi. Following an introduction that discusses the theory of geographic information systems in relation to anthropological inquiry, the book is divided into sections demonstrating actual applications in cultural anthropology, archaeology, paleoanthropology, and physical anthropology. The work will be of much interest within all these communities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195358957
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/18/1996
Series:	Spatial Information Systems
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

University of California, Santa Barbara

University of Wisconsin

Table of Contents

1	Introduction	3
2	Land Degradation in the Peruvian Amazon: Applying GIS in Human Ecology Research	19
3	The Use of GIS to Measure Spatial Patterns of Ethnic Firms in the Los Angeles Garment Industry	44
4	A Formal Justification for the Application of GIS to the Cultural Ecological Analysis of Land-Use Intensification and Deforestation in the Amazon	55
5	Integrating Socioeconomic and Geographic Information Systems: A Methodology for Rural Development and Agricultural Policy Design	78
6	Empirical and Methodological Problems in Developing a GIS Database for Yanomano Tribesmen Located in Remote Areas	97
7	A Time to Rend, A Time to Sew: New Perspectives on Northern Anasazi Sociopolitical Development in Late Prehistory	107
8	Moving from Catchments to Cognition: Tentative Steps Toward a Larger Archaeological Context for GIS	132
9	An Analysis of Late-Horizon Settlement Patterns in the Teotihuacan-Temascalapa Basins: A Location-Allocation and GIS-Based Approach	155
10	The Politics of Settlement Choice on the Northwest Coast: Cognition, GIS, and Coastal Landscapes	175
11	The Role of GIS in the Management of Archaeological Data: An Example of Application for the Spanish Administration	190
12	The Role of GIS in the Interdisciplinary Investigations at Olorgesailie, Kenya, a Pleistocene Archaeological Locality	202
13	Danebury Revisited: An English Iron Age Hillfort in a Digital Landscape	214
14	Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis in the Social Sciences	241
	References	251