Explanations of Diversity in Amazonia

Dr. William Balée, Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University combined ecological and anthropological research to show that biological diversity in Amazonia is tied to prehistoric and continuing native agricultural and cultural practices. Great species lists! Intriguing idea: that humans can live in harmony with nature and anthropogenic landscapes can add to ecological diversity.

On the Current State of What Paleontology Knows -- Not Much.

They don't even know what the land looked like. They know next to nothing about the major rituals or holidays, let alone what beliefs may have motivated them. They don't even know what their society did. We do know they built roads. But was the land farmed? Did they plant trees? They don't know when they lived in particular places, how much rain they had to work with, what the landscape was like. How the land changed as they abandonded it (or did it change first and they had to abandon it afterward). Cause and effect?

Seminar:
Alluvial geoarchaeology of fire history and culturally modified environments along the Eastern Mogollon Rim, Arizona. Chris Roos
Affiliation: Anthropology, University of Arizona