ABSTRACT
Archaeological landscapes of the last 500 years, a period of time often called the modern world, offer numerous opportunities to document the transformation of nature into culture through the process of learning. The archaeological record of the modern world documents the actions and consequences of biological, social, and technological forces that transformed human lifestyles and environments on a global scale. Population growth, urbanization, and industrialization brought about the transformation. The time period also is marked by large-scale social systems integrated by networks of economic exchange, production, and communication embedded within capitalistic world economies. Such systems effectively correlated or linked together local and regional ecosystems into world systems. Global population movements in the modern world introduced exotic plants, animals, diseases, technologies, and beliefs throughout the world. Such movements greatly increase the chances of the global migrants encountering completely new environments with no prior knowledge of the natural resources that occur there.
