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Foreword
Thomas H. McGovern
It is a genuine pleasure to provide this foreword to what will certainly become a
key volume for the integration of the long-term perspective (longue durée) with
present and future efforts to cope with hazards to the environment and human
welfare. As Payson Sheets and Jago Cooper emphasize in their introduction
and overview chapter, this group of contributors draws upon an impressive
range of disciplines and well-developed case studies from around the globe.
They are united in a growing movement among archaeologists, environmental
historians, and paleoecologists to make a well-understood past serve to create
a more genuinely sustainable future and increase human resilience in the
face of both gradual and sudden change (Constanza, Graumlich, and Steffen
2007; Crumley 1994; Dugmore et al. 2007; Fisher, Hill, and Feinman 2009;
Hornberg, McNeill, and Martinez-Alier 2007; Kirch 1997, 2007; Kohler and
van der Leeuw 2007; Marks 2007; McGovern et al 2007; Norberg et al. 2008;
Redman et al. 2004; Rick and Erlandson 2008; Sabloff 1998).
The Eagle Hill Meeting, October 2009
The editors and contributors are also connected by their participation in the
three-day Global Longterm Human Ecodynamics Conference hosted by
the Humboldt Field Research Institute at its excellent facility in Eagle Hill,
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