Integrating Historical Ecology and Environmental Justice

Abstract

Environmental justice studies (EJS) provides a framework for interdisciplinary research and advocacy in the realm of cultural heritage research and management. Ethnobiologists, in particular those who focus on environmental archaeology, are no strangers to the heritage arena as our scholarship commonly concerns “cultural keystone places,” which are rich with meaning for one or more groups of people. Three dimensions and three core concepts of EJS can serve as guideposts to research centering on these significant places. These EJS concepts align and intersect with core principles of historical ecology (HE), particularly through the study of landscapes as complex systems. This paper highlights how environmental justice and HE can be conceptually integrated. This EJS-HE framework is relevant to research design in environmental archaeology and more broadly ethnobiology, a framing to be adopted at the beginning of the research process that explicitly considers whether a research question is ethical to approach within a particular heritage context.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Althor

Witt

. 2020. “A Quantitative Systematic Review of Distributive Environmental Justice Literature: A Rich History and the Need for an Enterprising Future.” Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 10: 91–103. doi:10.1007/s13412-019-00582-9.

Anderson

E. N.

1996. Ecologies of the Heart: Emotion, Belief, and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press.

Armstrong

C. G.

Anderson

E. N.

. 2020. “Ecologies of the Heart.” In Archaeologies of the Heart, edited by Supernant

Baxter

J. E.

Lyons

Atalay

, 39–58. New York: Springer.

Armstrong

C. G.

Brown

. 2019. “Frontiers are Frontlines: Ethnobiological Science against Ongoing Colonialism.” Journal of Ethnobiology 39: 14–31. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-39.1.14.

Armstrong

C. G.

Miller

J. E.

Mcalvay

A. C.

Ritchie

P. M.

Lepofsky

. 2021. “Historical indigenous land-use explains plant functional trait diversity.” Ecology and Society 26 (2): 6. doi:10.5751/ES-12322-26020.

Armstrong

C. G.

Veteto

J. R.

. 2015. “Historical Ecology and Ethnobiology: Applied Research for Environmental Conservation and Social Justice.” Ethnobiology Letters 6: 5–7. doi:10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.313.

Atalay

2012. Community-Based Archaeology: Research with, by, and for Indigenous and Local Communities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Atleo

E. R.

2004. Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Bannister

2018. “From Ethical Codes to Ethics as Praxis: An Invitation.” Ethnobiology Letters 9: 13–26. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1060.

10.

Basso

K. H.

1996. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

11.

Bédard

R. E. M. K.

2008. “Role Models: An Anishinaabe-kwe Perspective.” Canadian Woman Studies 26: 190.

12.

Binford

L. R.

1962. “Archaeology as Anthropology.” American Antiquity 28: 217–225. doi:10.2307/278380.

13.

Binford

L. R.

1965. “Archaeological Systematics and the Study of Culture Process.” American Antiquity 31: 203–210. doi:10.2307/2693985.

14.

Binford

L. R.

1967. “Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking: The Use of Analogy in Archaeological Reasoning.” American Antiquity 32: 1–12. doi:10.2307/278774.

15.

Brunache

Dadzie

B. E.

Goodlett

Hampden

Khreisheh

Ngonadi

C. V.

Parikh

Sires

J. P.

. 2021. “Contemporary Archaeology and Anti-Racism: A Manifesto from the European Society of Black and Allied Archaeologists.” European Journal of Archaeology 24: 294–298. doi:10.1017/eaa.2021.21.

16.

Cajete

1999. “Reflections on Indigenous Ecology.” In A People’s Ecology: Exploration in Sustainable Living, edited by Cajete

, 1–20. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers.

17.

Clayton

2003. “Environmental Identity: A Conceptual and an Operational Definition.” In Identity and the Natural Environment: The Psychological Significance of Nature, edited by Clayton

Opotow

, 45–65. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

18.

Colwell

Joy

. 2015. “Communities and Ethics in the Heritage Debates.” In Global Heritage: A Reader, edited by Meskell

, 112–130. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.

19.

Crumley

C. L.

Westin

Lennartsson

. 2018. “Is the a future for the past?.” In Issues and Concepts in Historical Ecology, edited by Crumley

C. L.

Lennartsson

Westin

, eds., 1–9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

20.

Cuerrier

Turner

N. J.

Gomes

T. C.

Garibaldi

Downing

. 2015. “Cultural Keystone Places: Conservation and Restoration in Cultural Landscapes.” Journal of Ethnobiology 35 (3): 427–448. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-35.3.427.

21.

Dincauze

D. F.

2000. Environmental Archaeology: Principles and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.

22.

Dotson

Whyte

. 2013. “Environmental Justice, Unknowability and Unqualified Affectability.” Ethics and the Environment 18: 55–79.

23.

Douglass

Cooper

. 2020. “Archaeology, Environmental Justice, and Climate Change on Islands of the Caribbean and Southwestern Indian Ocean.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117: 8254–8262. doi:10.1073/pnas.1914211117.

24.

England

K. V.

1994. “Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research.” The Professional Geographer 46: 80–89. doi:10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00080.x.

25.

Evans

J. G.

2004. Environmental Archaeology and the Social Order. New York: Routledge.

26.

Figueroa

R. M.

2006. “Evaluating Environmental Justice Claims.” In Forging Environmentalism: Justice, Livelihood, and Contest Environments, edited by Bauer

, 360–376. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

27.

Figueroa

R. M.

Waitt

. 2008. “Cracks in the Mirror: (Un) Covering the Moral Terrains of Environmental Justice at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.” Ethics Place and Environment (Merged with Philosophy and Geography) 11: 327–349. doi:10.1080/13668790802559726.

28.

Figueroa

R. M.

Waitt

. 2010. “Climb: Restorative Justice, Environmental Heritage, and the Moral Terrains of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park.” Environmental Philosophy 7: 135–163.

29.

Fowler

C. T.

Herron

. 2018. “The Long Program for Ethics in Ethnobiology.” Ethnobiology Letters 9: 1–3. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1356.

30.

Gómez-Ruiz

P. A.

Betancourth-Buitrago

R. A.

Arteaga-Cote

Carbajal-Borges

J. P.

Teutli-Hernández

Laffon-Leal

. 2022. “Fostering a Participatory Process for Ecological Restoration of Mangroves in Pantanos de Centla Biosphere Reserve (Tabasco, Mexico).” Ecosystems and People 18: 112–118. doi:10.1080/26395916.2022.2032358.

31.

Gould

R. A.

Watson

P. J.

. 1982. “A Dialogue on the Meaning and Use of Analogy in Ethnoarchaeological Reasoning.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1: 355–381. doi:10.1016/0278-4165(82)90002-2.

32.

Hayashida

F. M.

2005. “Archaeology, Ecological History, and Conservation.” Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 43–65. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120515.

33.

Hendy

2021. “Ancient Protein Analysis in Archaeology.” Science Advances 7: eabb9314. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb9314.

34.

Hernández

2019. “Co-creating Indigenous Futurities with/in Academic Worlds.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 5 (2): 1–3. doi:10.28968/cftt.v5i2.32833.

35.

Hilding-Rydevik

Moen

Green

. 2018. “Baselines and Shifting Baseline Syndrome - Exploring Frames of Reference in Nature Conservation.” In Issues and Concepts in Historical Ecology, edited by Crumley

C. L.

Lennartsson

Westin

, eds., 112–141. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

36.

Hodgson

D. L.

2011. Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous: Postcolonial Politics in a Neoliberal World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

37.

Huaman

E. S.

Swentzell

. 2021. “Indigenous Education and Sustainable Development: Rethinking Environment through Indigenous Knowledges and Generative Environmental Pedagogies.” Journal of American Indian Education 60: 7–28.

38.

Hunn

. 2014. “To Know Them is to Love Them.” Ethnobiology Letters 5: 146–150. doi:10.14237/ebl.5.2014.

39.

Lepofsky

Armstrong

C. G.

Greening

Jackley

Carpenter

Guernsey

Mathews

Turner

N. J.

. 2017. “Historical Ecology of Cultural Keystone Places of the Northwest Coast.” American Anthropologist 119 (3): 448–463. doi:10.1111/aman.2017.119.issue-3.

40.

Lyman

R. L.

1994. Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

41.

Lyman

R. L.

O'Brien

M. J.

. 2006. Measuring Time with Artifacts: A History of Methods in American Archaeology. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

42.

Lyman

R. L.

O'Brien

M. J.

Dunnell

R. C.

. 1997. The Rise and Fall of Culture History. New York: Plenum Press.

43.

Makarewicz

C. A.

Sealy

. 2015. “Dietary Reconstruction, Mobility, and The Analysis of Ancient Skeletal Tissues: Expanding the Prospects of Stable Isotope Research in Archaeology.” Journal of Archaeological Science 56: 146–158. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2015.02.035.

44.

Martindale

Nicholas

G. P.

. 2014. “Archaeology as Federated Knowledge.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology/Journal Canadien D'Archéologie 38: 434–465.

45.

McAlvay

A. C. C. G.

Armstrong

Baker

Black Elk

J. L.

Bosco

Hanazaki

Joseph

, et al. 2021. “Ethnobiology Phase VI: Decolonizing Institutions, Projects, and Scholarship.” Journal of Ethnobiology 41: 170–191. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-41.2.170.

46.

McGregor

2018. “Mino-Mnaamodzawin: Achieving Indigenous Environmental Justice in Canada.” Environment and Society: Advances in Research 9: 7–24. doi:10.3167/ares.2018.090102.

47.

Munsen

P. J

. 1969. “Comments on Binford's “Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking: The Use of Analogy in Archaeological Reasoning.”” American Antiquity 34: 83–85.

48.

Nagaoka

2019. “Human Behavioral Ecology and Zooarchaeology.” In Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology, edited by Prentiss

A. M.

, 231–253. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

49.

Naranjo

1995. “Thoughts on Migration by Santa Clara Pueblo.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14: 247–250. doi:10.1006/jaar.1995.1013.

50.

Naranjo

2006. “We Came from the South, We Came from the North: Some Tewa Origin Stories.” In The Mesa Verde World, edited by Noble

D. G.

, 49–57. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.

51.

O’Brien

M. J.

, ed. 1996. Evolutionary Archaeology: Theory and Application. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

52.

O'Brien

M. J.

Lyman

R. L.

Schiffer

M. B.

. 2005. Archaeology as a Process: Processualism and Its Progeny. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

53.

Ottoni

Borić

Cheronet

Sparacello

Dori

Coppa

Antonovic

, et al. 2021. “Tracking the Transition to Agriculture in Southern Europe through Ancient DNA Analysis of Dental Calculus.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118: e2102116118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2102116118.

54.

Panameño

Nalda

. 1979. “Arqueología ¿Para Quién?” Nueva Antropología 3: 111–124.

55.

Pratt

M. L

. 1992. Imperial Writing and Transculturalism. London and New York: Routledge.

56.

Reitz

Shackley

. 2012. Environmental Archaeology. New York: Springer.

57.

Rick

Braje

Graham

Easterday

Hofman

Holguin

Mychajliw

Reeder-Myers

Reynolds

. 2022. “Cultural Keystone Places and the Chumash Landscapes of Humqaq, Point Conception, California.” American Antiquity 87: 487–504. doi:10.1017/aaq.2021.154.

58.

Rolston

III . 1988. Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

59.

Rose

1997. “Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivities and Other Tactics.” Progress in Human Geography 21: 305–320. doi:10.1191/030913297673302122.

60.

Schiffer

M. B

. 1987. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

61.

Schroeder

Martin

K. S.

Wilson

Sen

. 2008. “Third World Environmental Justice.” Society & Natural Resources 21: 547–555. doi:10.1080/08941920802100721.

62.

Scott

Power

R. C.

Altmann-Wendling

Artzy

Martin

M. A.

Eisenmann

Hagan

, et al. 2021. “Exotic Foods Reveal Contact Between South Asia and the Near East during the Second Millennium BCE.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118: e2014956117. doi:10.1073/pnas.2014956117.

63.

Simpson

L. B.

2014. “Land as Pedagogy: Nishnaabeg Intelligence and Rebellious Transformation.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3: 1–25.

64.

Sinclair

Moen

Crumley

C. L.

. 2018. “Historical Ecology and the Longue Durée.” In Issues and Concepts in Historical Ecology: The Past and Future of Landscapes and Regions, edited by Crumley

C. L.

Lennartsson

Westin

, 13–40. New York: Cambridge University Press.

65.

Stepp

J. R.

2012. “Ethnobiology, Religion, Nature and Culture.” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 6: 393–397. doi:10.1558/jsrnc.v6i4.393.

66.

Svensson

Amundsen

H. R.

Holm

Hulling

Johansson

Löfgren

Nilsson

Pettersson

Stensby

. 2018. “Empowering Marginal Lifescapes: The Heritage of Crofters in Between the Past and the Present.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 24: 17–34. doi:10.1080/13527258.2017.1362579.

67.

Swentzell

2015. “Irrigating Astrofalfa.” In Sushi in Cortez: Interdisciplinary Essays on Mesa Verde, edited by Taylor

J. D.

Wolverton

, 73–89. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

68.

Tilley

2016. Interpreting Landscapes: Geologies, Topographies, Identities; Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology. New York: Routledge.

69.

Turner

N. J.

Berkes

. 2006. “Coming to Understanding: Developing Conservation through Incremental Learning in the Pacific Northwest.” Human Ecology 34 (4): 495–513. doi:10.1007/s10745-006-9042-0.

70.

Van Ness

D. W.

2002. “The Shape of Things to Come: A Framework for Thinking about a Restorative Justice System.” In Restorative Justice: Theoretical Foundations, edited by Weitekamp

Kerner

H.-J.

, 23–42. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.

71.

Watson

P. J.

LeBlanc

S. A.

Redman

C. L.

. 1971. Explanation in Archaeology: An Explicitly Scientific Approach. New York: Columbia University Press.

72.

Watson

P. J.

LeBlanc

S. A.

Redman

C. L.

. 1974. “The Covering Law Model in Archaeology: Practical Uses and Formal Interpretations.” World Archaeology 6: 125–132. doi:10.1080/00438243.1974.9979596.

73.

Watson

P. J.

LeBlanc

S. A.

Redman

C. L.

. 1984. Archeological Explanation: The Scientific Method in Archeology. New York: Columbia University Press.

74.

Whyte

K. P.

2011. “The Recognition Dimensions of Environmental Justice in Indian Country.” Environmental Justice 4: 199–205. doi:10.1089/env.2011.0036.

75.

Whyte

K. P.

2014. “Indigenous Women, Climate Change Impacts, and Collective Action.” Hypatia 29 (3): 599–616. doi:10.1111/hypa.12089.

76.

Wolverton

Figueroa

R. M.

Levin

C. M.

Swentzell

. 2022. “Archaeology and Tourism at Mesa Verde National Park: An Environmental Justice Heritage.” In The Routledge Handbook of Development and Environment, edited by McKusker

Ahmed

Ramutsindela

Solís

, 257–275. New York: Routledge Press.

77.

Wolverton

Figueroa

R. M.

Swentzell

. 2016. “Archaeology, Heritage, and Moral Terrains: Two Cases from the Mesa Verde Region.” Ethnobiology Letters 7: 23–31. doi:10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.695.

78.

Wolverton

Lyman

R. L.

. 2000. “Immanence and Configuration in Analogical Reasoning.” North American Archaeologist 21: 233–247. doi:10.2190/QYCW-11QX-THNV-5E6R.

79.

Wylie

1989. “Archaeological Cables and Tacking: The Implications of Practice for Bernstein's ‘Options Beyond Objectivism and Relativism.’” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 19: 1–18. doi:10.1177/004839318901900101.

80.

Wylie

2019. “Rock, Bone, and Ruin: A Trace-Centric Appreciation.” Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 11: 8. doi:10.3998/ptpbio.16039257.0011.008.

81.

Wyndham

F. S

. 2009. “Spheres of Relations, Lines of Interaction: Subtle Ecologies of the Rarámuri Landscape in Northern Mexico.” Journal of Ethnobiology 29 (2): 271–295. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-29.2.271.

82.

Zent

. 2022. “Love Sustains Life: Jkyo Jkwainï and Allied Strategies in Caring for the Earth.” Journal of Ethnobiology 42: 86–104. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-42.1.86.