world system review

8/9/2019 World System Review

1/4

The World System and the Earth System: Global Socio-Environmental Change and

Sustainability since the Neolithic by Alf Hornborg; Carole L. CrumleyReview by: David HelgrenJournal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Spring, 2009), pp. 124-126Published by: University of New MexicoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25608159.

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2/4

124

JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL

RESEARCH

All

in

all,

this

volume

is

a

worthy,

if

highly-technical,

addition

to

the

impeccable,

substantial,

and

timely

series

of

monographs

on

theNeuch?tel sites.

Kudos

to

Leesch,

her

team,

and theCantonal Museum

Lawrence

Guy

Straus

University

of

New

Mexico

The World

System

and the

Earth

System:

Global

Socio-Environmental

Change and Sustainability since theNeolithic. Alf Hornborg and Carole L.

Crumley,

eds.

Walnut

Creek,

CA: Left Coast

Press,

2007,

416

pp.

$75.00,

cloth;

$34.95,

paper.

This is

one

of

two

volumes

recounting

a

conference

titled "World

System

History

and Global

Environmental

Change"

held

in

Lund,

Sweden,

in

September

2003.

Included

here

are

twenty-one

papers

following

a

summative introduction

by

Alf

Hornborg. Clearly

the intent

as

to

bring

together

wide

spectrum

of

perspectives

on

relations

between human

societies and

their

biophysical

environments.

The

individual

contributions

come

from several academic

tribes and

thus

include

diverse

methodologies

at

multiple temporal

and

spatial

scales.

In

addition,

the

degree

of

polish

varies.

Some

were

given

full embellishment

before

or

after

the

conference;

others

read

more

closely

to

the

verbal

presentations.

The

relatively

long

delay

to

publication

led

many

contributors

to

publish expansions

of

their

presentations

elsewhere.

Nonetheless,

the

combined

narrative

and

bibliography

provide

lasting

value

and

a

possible

point

of

departure

for

a

graduate

seminar.

Hornborg

and

Crumley

divide

the

presentations

into three

sets.

The first

has six contributions and is titled "Modeling Socioecological Systems: General

Perspectives."

Carole

Crumley

defends

systemic

historical

ecology

at

multiple

spatial

and

temporal

scales.

Frank

Oldfield

reflects

on

developing

synergistic

linkages

between

biophysical

and

cultural

realms.

Importantly,

he

outlines how

the

emerging

anxieties

over

future

global

environmental

changes

are

challenging

both the

social

and

biophysical

sciences.

In

particular,

scientific

findings

should

be

reproducible,

but

predictions

of

the future

cannot

be verified

until

then.

Simultaneously predictions

are

being

used

to

develop

policy

and

enforce

management goals.

Yet

without

a

robust

scientific

foundation,

how

can

we

choose

wise

policies

for

limited

current

resources?

Oldfield

also

points

out

that

the

changing

cultures

of

scientists

and

science

are

stressing

the

whole

system

of scientific

endeavor.

For

example,

social

scientists

traditionally

avoid

making

predictions

about

the

biophysical

world.

Meanwhile

biophysical

scientists

have

a new

tradition

of

sailing

merrily

into

predictions

about

the

cultural

world.

Also

in

this

first

set

of

articles,

Thomas

Hall

and Peter Turchin

raise

thematter

of

apparently

coeval,

population-political

expansions

across

great

world

regions

over

the

past

1,400 years.

Such

large-scale

rhythms

are

both

evocative

as

well

Journal

of

Anthropological

Research,

vol.

65,

2009

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3/4

BOOK

REVIEWS 125

as

methodologically

challenging.

Another article

of

interest

in

this

first

set

is

by

Jonathan

Friedman,

who

points

out

societies tend

to

collapse,

or

at

least

substantially

reorganize,

before their

ecological

limits

are

reached.

And

social

issues

may

be

as

important

s

biophysical

change.

He

points

out

that ew

Orleans

was a

reasonably

functioning

river-ocean

port

in thenineteenth

century.

However

the

twentieth-century

ultural

template

that

built

a

sprawling

city

on

this

deltaic

landscape

was

dysfunctional?and

much warned about

long

before Hurricane

Katrina

in

2005.

The

second

set of

articles,

titled Case Studies

in

Socio-environmental

Change

in

Prehistory,"

has

eight

entries.

All

focus

on

apparent

coincidences between

cultural and environmental

changes;

however,

the

diversity

in

methodological

or

conceptual

strategies

is

substantial.

George

Modelski

asks whether

the

recurring

"dark ages" in the past 4,500 years were reversing societal reorganizations

after

periods

of

cultural exuberance

or

the result of

unmet

challenges

of natural

environmental

change,

or

both.

And human-environment

interactions

in

the

same

region

at

the

same

times

can

be

profitably

examined

from

quite

different

perspectives.

For

example,

Betty

Meggars

emphasizes

her

perspective

that

Amazonian

populations

have

always

been limited

by

low soil

fertility

cross

wide

areas.

In

contrast,

Alf

Hornborg

looks

at

the rich

archaeological

opportunities

along

the

narrow,

fertile

floodplains

of northern

South

America,

where

he finds

successful raised

fields

and

"Arawak"

trading

networks.

The

final

set

of

articles

asks,

"Is

theWorld

System

Sustainable?

Attempts

toward

an

Integrated Socioecological

Perspective."

Its

seven

articles

vary

from

environmentalist

exhortations

to

society-environment

model

building

to

defending

preferred

academic

taxonomies.

Two

reports

remind

us

of

the

threats f

globalization.

Thomas

Malm

reflects

on

the

preservation

of economic

resiliency

in

the

Pacific,

where

he finds the

assessment

of

carrying capacity

both

variable

and

mutable,

so

environmental

"crisis

points"

are

culturally

relative.

Similarly

Alfred

Crosby

recounts

the

global

history

of

epidemics,

wherein

societies

now

and thenpay dearly for spatially intensifiedconnectivity.

With

its

amusing

collection of

perspectives

on

gauging

culture-environment

relationships,

this

volume

points

out

how

much

work

remains.

Five

directions for

improvement

are

obvious.

First,

the

fundamental

interdisciplinary

grammar

and

vocabulary

need

precision.

Concepts

such

as

"landscape

sensitivity,"

"adaptive

capacity,"

"social

vulnerability,"

"world

system evolution,"

and

"risk

and

resilience" need

consistent,

measurable

definition.

Second,

social

scientists,

in

particular,

need

to

clarify

linkages

between

climate

change

and

societal

change.

Climate

is

actually composed

of

a

suite

of

measurable

variables, including

temperature,

precipitation,

and

seasonality,

linked

in

some

way

to

soil

and

biotic

patterns.

Is

a

set

of

unambiguous

cultural

variables

available

to

connect to

such

environmental

variables in

a

systemic

fashion?

Third,

spatial

and

temporal

scales

matter

profoundly

in

assessing

the

relationships

between

culture

and

environment.

Is it

appropriate

to

link

cultural

processes

inferred

from

an

archaeological

site

with

a

regional

concept

of

climate?

Can

one

really

ascribe

one

day

of

garbage

in

a

midden

to

the

environmental

adaptations

of

the

whole

Neolithic?

Fourth,

collections

of

anecdotal

data,

no

matter

how

abundant

and

pleasing,

generate

Journal

of

Anthropological

Research,

vol.

65,

2009



4/4

126 JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL

RESEARCH

neither social

science

nor

biophysical

science. And

fifth,

eveloping

management

plans

for

a

better human-environmental future

is viable

through modeling.

However,

the

biophysical

models of the

present

and

near

future

are

much

more

complete

than the

decidedly

primitive

models of cultural

patterns

and

adaptations.

Social scientists

appear

to

be

far,

far behind.

David

Helgren

Geography

Department

San

Jose State

University

Civilizing

Climate:

Social

Responses

to

Climate

Change

in the

Ancient

Near

East.

Arlene

Miller

Rosen.

Lanham,

MD: Rowman

&

Littlefield, 2007,

184

pp.

$72.00, cloth;

$32.95, paper.

This

volume

is

a

masterful

example

of how difficult

it is

to

carry

out true

interdisciplinary

research. Rosen

examines the

complex

interrelationship

of

humans

to

their

environment

in

the face

of

changing

climatic conditions

and

shows

the

fallacy

of

being

a

strong

advocate

of

either

environmental

or

cultural

determinism.

Despite

a

title

implying

a

broad

focus

on

theNear

East,

Rosen

instead

emphasizes

the southern

Levant from the Terminal

Pleistocene

through

the

Holocene.

This volume

will be

of

considerable

interest

to

a

wide

range

of

scholars

and

to

more

general

readers interested

in the

nuances

of how

climate

change

affects,

but does

not

determine,

culture.

In

Chapter

1,

Rosen

states

that

she

"attempts

to

examine

the interactive

relationship

between

ancient

Near

Eastern

societies

and

their

nvironments,

taking

into consideration

social

organization,

technology,

and

political

and economic

factors, as well as human perceptions of nature and environmental change" (p.

4).

This

chapter

sets

up

Rosen's theoretical

perspective,

one

at

odds

with

often

simplistic

models

viewing

the

interactions of

culture

and

environmental'stress

in

which

the latter

ften

"wins."

Instead,

Rosen's

focus

is that cultures

have

many

ways

of

dealing

with

environmental

shifts,

nd thatwhen

they

are

unsuccessful,

a

failure of

the

social

or

political

system

is often

to

blame.

Chapter

1

also addresses

scale

in environmental

change

and

perceptions

of

nature

and environmental

change,

and

how

these

are

culturally

variable,

often

based

on

a

group's

level

of

complexity. Finally,

an

important

observation

is that

archaeologists

often

pay

little

attention

to

societies

that have

survived

severe

environmental

stress,

preferring

instead

to

focus

on

failures and

collapses

(something

that

might

be

called

the

"Jared

Diamond"

syndrome,

although

this

does

not

do

justice

to

his

often

compelling

arguments).

Chapter

2

is

a

useful

primer

on

tools

used

in

reconstructing

past

climates.

Since

direct

climatic

data

are

not

generally

available,

Rosen

provides

a

discussion

of

proxy

data.

These

include

three

broad

categories:

historical

accounts,

paleoecological

data

(e.g., pollen

and

fauna),

and

geological

data

(e.g.,

sedimentation

rates,

stream

Journal

of

Anthropological

Research,

vol.

65,

2009


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