Biodiversity and Native America

by Paul E. Minnis (Editor), Wayne J. Elisens (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806133454
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	08/15/2001
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

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.

Wayne J. Elisens, Professor of Botany and curator of the Bebb Herbarium at the University of Oklahoma, is coeditor of Biodiversity and Native America.

Editorial Reviews

While similar works tend to emphasize the ethnobiology of the tropics, here contributors explore the ingenious and changing record of adaptive and management strategies of indigenous North Americans. . . . This book is a must-read.”—Culture and Agriculture


“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

From the Publisher