A New Ecological Framework for Understanding Human–Environment Interactions in Arid Australia

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20071729
AutoresJennifer M Webb (0000-0001-6960-787X, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Páginas61-78
Data de publicação2013-05-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoCHAPTER
PeriódicoArchaeology in Environment and Technology (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780203508947-11
OpenAlexW2553900496
ISBN9780203508947
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12
Referências citadas35

Twenty years ago Stafford Smith and Morton (1990) published an ecological assessment of Australia as a series of propositions that illustrated why the continent stood apart ecologically from other arid areas around the world. The assessment has now been updated in light of recent work (Morton et al. 2011). Both studies provide an opportunity to question how archaeologists working in Australia have utilised ecological information: to what degree have they developed understandings of hunter–gatherer behaviour in the deserts that are different from similar studies in other regions of the world? To answer this question the ecological assessments are summarised, followed by a review of how archaeologists have considered the Australian environment. A case study from recent work in western New South Wales is provided to illustrate how the propositions put forward in the ecological assessment can be investigated archaeologically. People do not necessarily behave in concert with their environment; hence archaeologists have replaced a deterministic model for human–environment interactions with an understanding of how people are both affected by and affect the environment (Kirch 2005). For hunter–gatherers, the theoretical approaches archaeologists use to investigate this interdependence originated from studies of contemporary groups living in places outside Australia. Binford (1979), for instance, worked with high latitude Nunamuit hunters, while Yellen (1977) undertook ethnoarchaeological work with the !Kung in the Kalahari. Other ethnoarchaeological work was carried out in Australia (e.g. Hayden 1979; O’Connell & Hawkes 1981, 1884; Gould 1991). In all these cases, ethnographic work was limited in duration, spanning a few months through to one to two years. This placed some limitations on the value of the studies for understanding longer term interaction between people and their environment. In an often cited study, Binford (1980) proposed a dichotomy between foragers and collectors as a way of understanding the nature of hunter– gatherer organisation in the ethnographic case studies he was considering

Arid · Biology · Environmental resource management · Geography · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Environmental Science · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Ecology