Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book bridges the theoretical and cross-cultural challenges faced by many research engagements with climate change by focusing on historical ecology as a research programme capable of articulating diverse ecological and ontological domains through the central concept and scale of the landscape. It examines the influence of pre-Columbian climate change in Lowland South America through a historical–ecological lens. The book then investigates Maya forest gardens using novel methodological approaches to critically scrutinize the consilience of ethnographic, archaeological, and paleoecological records in Central America. It also highlights the value of a historical–ecological framework for evaluating thousands of years of human–environment interactions across coastal California. The book examines long-term human–environment interactions that have resulted in complex biocultural landscapes, and which are currently targeted as pathways toward mitigating climate change.