The Way the Wind Blows

Scientists and policymakers are beginning to understand in ever-increasing detail that environmental problems cannot be understood solely through the biophysical sciences. Environmental issues are fundamentally human issues and must be set in the context of social, political, cultural, and economic knowledge. The need both to understand how human beings in the past responded to climatic and other environmental changes and to synthesize the implications of these historical patterns for present-day sustainability spurred a conference of the world's leading scholars on the topic. The Way the Wind Blows is the rich result of that conference. Articles discuss the dynamics of climate, human perceptions of and responses to the environment, and issues of sustainability and resiliency. These themes are illustrated through discussions of human societies around the world and throughout history.

Carole L. Crumley is Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Jeffrey S. Dean is Professor of Dendrochronology in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona Robert B. Dunbar is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Stanford University William J. Folan has served since 1981 as Director of the Center for Historical and Social Investigation at the Autonomous University of Campeche, Mexico David A. Freidel is Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University Joel D. Gunn is an archaeologist specializing in settlement patterns and a paleoclimatologist with an applied interest in long-term historical ecology Fekri A. Hassan is Petrie Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London Cho-yun Hsu is Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and the Wei-lun Professor of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong John R. Johnson is Curator of Anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Roderick J. McIntosh is Professor of Anthropology at Rice University Susan Keech McIntosh is Professor of Anthropology at Rice University Justine Shaw received her Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University in 1998, on settlement patterns at Yaxuna in the Yucatan Joseph A. Tainter is Project Leader of Cultural Heritage Research at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Albuquerque Tereba Togola serves as National Director of Arts and Culture for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Mali Sander van der Leeuw, Professor at the Institut d'Art et d'Archeologie of the University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), currently heads the multidisciplinary and international Archaeomedes project, funded by the European Union