Themes for week of 10 January 2008:

History Without Borders: Human Nature and Natural Worlds Through Time

Discussion Questions:- How do these authors compare/contrast in their approach to

environmental history? What are their priorities and/or biases?- How did the natural world influence what people perceived to

be natural and how they acted as a result?- What is the relation between ideas about nature and human

strategies of production and settlement? Political entities?

Before Next Meeting (Monday)

• Read for general understanding and familiarity:Fernández-Armesto, pp. 18-38, 39-78;Steinberg, pp. 21-50

Richards, pp. 58-85

• Read for more expertise and detailed understanding in your Discussion Assignment (see suggestions on syllabus regarding things to consider/look for in analyzing material assigned to you for this)

• Be ready to provide a brief overview, in class, of your working ideas for the term project (ideas for a topic, approach, questions to ask)

History Without Borders: Human Nature and Natural Worlds

A. Environmental history vs history of environmentalism 1. Are humans apart from nature or a part of nature?

a. How did perceptions of nature affect human actions in relation to nature?

b. How did environmental changes occur and how did humans adapt?

2. How have humans “constructed” nature through time?a. What is “nature”? “natural”?b. Concept of “second nature” and the built environment

i. What was the effect of human activity on surroundingsii. How did perceptions of “nature” change over time?

-classical sense: “it’s in their nature” (as it is)-modern sense: untainted by human manipulation?

Discussion Questions:- How do these authors compare/contrast in their approach to

environmental history? What are their priorities and/or biases?- How did the natural world influence what people perceived to

be natural and how they acted as a result?- What is the relation between ideas about nature and human

strategies of production and settlement? Political entities?

- Fernándes-Armesto, pp. 3-17: Environment and Civilization• “environmental frontiers” as niches for civilization• Human adaptation and experimentation• “the itch to civilize” (urge & risk to “improve”/progressive bias)• The tendency to “overexploit”• “The Glutinous Environment” • (environment changes us)

Discussion Questions:- How do these authors compare/contrast in their approach to

environmental history? What are their priorities and/or biases?- How did the natural world influence what people perceived to

be natural and how they acted as a result?- What is the relation between ideas about nature and human

strategies of production and settlement? Political entities?

- Richards, pp. 1-14: Anthropocentric change, 1500-1850• Intensified land use (and concept of “frontiers”)• Biological invasions linked with human mobility (“alien species”)• Species depletion (“simplification” & “the world hunt”)(we change the environment)

Discussion Questions:- How do these authors compare/contrast in their approach to

environmental history? What are their priorities and/or biases?- How did the natural world influence what people perceived to

be natural and how they acted as a result?- What is the relation between ideas about nature and human

strategies of production and settlement? Political entities?

- Steinberg, pp. 3-20: “Rocks and History”, and “Chaos to Simplicity”• Geologic origins (Pangea) & “resources”• Prehistoric climate change• “Wilderness under Fire”—prehistoric land management• “Paleoindians” and “mass extinctions”

(“complex dialogue” argument)

Discussion Questions:- How do these authors compare/contrast in their approach to

environmental history? What are their priorities and/or biases?- How did the natural world influence what people perceived to

be natural and how they acted as a result?- What is the relation between ideas about nature and human

strategies of production and settlement? Political entities?

- McNeill, xxi-xxvi, 3-18: “Rats, Sharks, and History” and “Peculiarities of a Prodigal Century”: (accelerating adaptations)• Economic Growth• Population Growth• Energy Production• Energy Use (self-destructive patterns of adaptation)

History Without Borders: Human Nature and Natural Worlds

A. What is the relation between ideas about nature and strategies of production?1. What are “natural” human priorities?2. What human actions cause environmental transformation?3. How do different strategies of production affect interaction

with nature?a. Hunting?

• Totemism and the mythology of oneness with nature• Wilderness as “home”

b. What was the standard of living in paleolithic times? Lifespan/health?

c. How did the transition to neolithic culture affect lifespans/health?

d. What prompted the transition from paleolithic to neolithic lifeways?

e. What was the effect of Global climate shifts and glaciation? (ice ages?)

History Without Borders: Human Nature and Natural Worlds

A. How does agriculture affect perceptions of nature and wilderness?1. What is “agriculture”? Is it necessary for “civilization?2. What are the origins of the concept of “gardening”?

B. What caused change in subsistence patterns? a. Climate change? (global warming/species extinctions?)b. Population pressures (sedentism, declining food supplies?)c. Innovation? (experimentation/hobbyists?)d. Mistake? (big brain is defective adaptation?)

C. Environmental History as the study of regional variation in time?(see case-study, below)

Emerging Notions of Nature: regionalism and the cultural baggage of Europeans

How did perceptions of natural vs unnatural worlds change over time and why?

How did those perceptions affect the way people acted in nature, and with what results?

How do ideas affect what people do in Nature?

• How does the location of people in nature relate to their ideas about nature?

• “civilization” in association with margins, or edges (transition zones)

• fuel, refuges, reserves and dynamic tension of people in relation to forests

• Robert Pogue Harrison, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization

Forests & Ancient concepts of wild vs civilized (humanized?) landscapes:

• Ancient European perceptions of forests as protective margins of cultural integrity

– obstacles to conquest and homogenization– assylums of cultural independence– targets of imperial power– agents of isolation/localization (lucus)

• Plato’s account of deforestation in ancient Greece

• Roman law conveyed title to person who cleared a land parcel

How do Imperial Systems affect perceptions of nature?

• How do Imperial Systems affect perceptions of nature? – potash industry and its impact on forest lands– leather tanning and impact on forests (500,000 tons

of bark/yr in early 1800s Britain)– sea-power and deforestation (shipbuilding)– ecological implications of classical statuary (quaries,

smelting, etc.)

• How does nature affect patterns of imperial growth?– prominence of oak woodlands in Mediterranean ecosystems

– relatively insignificant tidal action in Mediterranean Sea

• stability of coastal access

• implications for maritime trade

F. Braudel’s Mediterranean and the concept of deep currents in history

Regional specialization to serve imperial economy

Movement of resources from periphery to center

Accelerated impacts on ever-expanding periphery

How does the structure of an imperial economy affect energy flows and processes?

The Nature of Imperial Greece

How did the ancient Greeks think about the world around them?

– Platonic idealism • imagine there's a real world that you can't really see, hear,

feel, touch, or smell--spiritual essence?• What you think you see is only an illusion, or a shadow-

image of what is real

– Aristotelian method• observed "uses"--the real world is all around you and it is

useful• pragmatic knowledge is what really matters (use-value)

What did Greeks do with the nature around them?– How did urbanization affect the landscapes of ancient

Greece? • Deforestation contributed to soil erosion & siltation of

nearby landscapes and rivers• growth model of colonization to secure depleted/needed

resources for imperial centers• localized temperature increases and drought (microclimate

changes from deforestation)• new marshlands (from floods & siltation) foster mosquito-

borne disease epidemics (malaria)• mining/pollution (air, water)/ and species extinctions

– How did ancient Greeks respond to the ecological crisis? • passive solar heating systems• plantation forestry• Contour plowing

– Did their efforts succeed in slowing/halting degradation?

The Nature of Imperial Rome

How did the Roman Empire re-make the Greek world?

– Pliny’s Natural History (1st century AD) & Aristotelian method (observational "uses")

– land-armies and defensive ramparts (2000 x 3000 ft per 3-legion army

– Health problems associated with industrialization & extensive use of heavy metals (lead, silver, gold)

– note high lead content in garum and liquamen (common sauces in Roman foods)

– lead sulfide as common prescription for diseases, scars, eyewash, and hairwash (cosmetic)

The Nature of Monastic Enclaves

How did European perceptions of nature change after the Fall of the Roman Empire, and why?

– Intellectual retreat into monastaries and the study of localized nature

– “discovered” order vs "classical order"• sensational Nature (monastery grounds) vs

authoritative texts (Pliny’s Natural History , 1st century AD)

• priestly ideal of [re-]naming God’s creation• Disjuncture of daily life and Pliny’s Nature

– Europe’s Deforestation: 95% forested in 1st century, 20% forested in 1100 AD (45 million people)

How did the “Little Ice Age” affect Renaissance thinking and the “Discovery”

impulse?

• declining agricultural productivity and the crisis of Christendom (ca 1200-1350)

• Black Death of 1347-1350 and biological luxuries for survivors (temporary surplus)

• Apparent surplus and flowering of cultures

• population recovery and resource crisis, 1400-1500

The Nature of Discovery

How did “discovery” of America affect European ideas about nature?

– Challenged European constructs of nature (religious & scientific):

• unexplained variation in species, people, resources (new science)

• new observations conflict with classical and renaissance-era texts (sensational vs rational order)

– Disrupted faith in order and stability in nature as evidence of God’s order (nature as unknown threat)

– Native Americans as a challenge to Aristotelian ideal of “folk wisdom” (observational and use knowledge)

– Scientific/religious retreat into idealized systems (formalism, immutable “laws”, linear time)

• de-spiritualized and commodified “nature” • Protestant/Calvinist doctrine of pre-destination

What (mis)perceptions of forests and nature did Europeans bring to North America after 1500?

• Forested landscape as impediment/threatening wilderness (vs valued legacy)

• Ecological diversity as an intellectual and metaphysical problem (vs introduced species as food source)

• Aristotelian concept of use-value/ways of knowing and understanding nature (materialism)

• Platonic traditions of idealism (supernatural forms)

The Nature of Doubt

How did the scientific Revolution affect European priorities in the Discovery Era, 1500-1700?

• Instrumentation and the narrowing of perspective (alienation from nature)

• Scientific method and the concept of "facts" (data) alienated from nature (context or value)

– Descartes and the "method of doubt"--disbelief in common-sense nature (“the noise of breaking machines”)

– Newton and systematic "laws" of a mechanistic universe (soul-less nature vs soul-ful humanity)

The Nature of Belief

How did Judeo-Christian mythology/beliefs structure human perceptions of the landscape?

– "Garden" imagery and the concept of a "humanized" environment (pastoral/agricultural ideals)

– "Paradise Lost" and the search for other-worldly "redemption" (vs "stewardship" ideals?)

How did the Protestant Reformation affect European perceptions of/interactions with nature?

– search for order and stability in nature as a symbol of God’s order/divine plan (John Winthrop's "City on a Hill"

– puritan ideology of a natural order apparent in physical world (appearance is everything)

Implications of European confusion about the natural world (what is natural) at the time of contact with the Americas:

– European spiritual leadership in chaotic disorder and violent contest

– “long century” of violent competition for ideological advantage (1480s to 1620s)

– Implications for European perceptions of exotic landscapes and peoples (the "other")

The Nature of Enlightenment

Before Next Meeting (Monday)• Read for general understanding and familiarity:

Fernández-Armesto, pp. 18-38, 39-78;Steinberg, pp. 21-50

Richards, pp. 58-85

• Read for more expertise and detailed understanding in your Discussion Assignment (see suggestions on syllabus regarding things to consider/look for in analyzing material assigned to you for this)

• Be ready to provide a brief overview, in class, of your working ideas for the term project (ideas for a topic, approach, questions to ask)