The contributions of zooarchaeology to historical ecology in the neotropics

Zooarchaeology can contribute to issues that lie beyond the traditional boundaries of archaeology and paleobiology. The techniques and methods of zooarchaeology are essential to an historical ecology that has emerged as a powerful perspective for understanding indigenous peoples and landscapes of the neotropics, both in the present and the past. In order to realize fully its potential contributions to historical ecology, zooarchaeology must reject the arbitrary dichotomization of culture and nature and a viewpoint that considers indigenous peoples as passive reactors to environments rather than as active creators of human landscapes. Zooarchaeology must avoid the seduction of neo-Malthusian assumptions that underlie many cherished models, and should do more than simply list extinctions at the hands of prehistoric humans. Instead, zooarchaeologists should focus on the study of past human landscapes, explore dynamic disturbances and the human maintenance of habitat mosaics, record the infrastructure of intensive agriculture, and understand the indigenous logic of past biodiversity management. When archaeologists study the landscapes of previous human populations, they are engaged in the practice of historical ecology. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.