Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-308) and index.

Introduction : environmental studies for twenty-first-century conservation / Christopher T. Fisher, J. Brett Hill, and Gary M. Feinman -- The resilience of socioecological landscapes : lessons from the Hohokam / Charles L. Redman, Margaret C. Nelson, and Ann P. Kinzig -- What is an "environmental crisis" to an archaeologist? / Sander E. van der Leeuw -- Beyond sustainability : managed wetlands and water harvesting in ancient Mesoamerica / Vernon L. Scarborough -- Creating a stable landscape : soil conservation and adaptation among the ancient Maya / Nicholas Dunning ... [et al.] -- Farming the margins : on the social causes and consequences of soil-management strategies / Tina L. Thurston -- The human-wildlife conundrum : a view from East Africa / Chapurukha M. Kusimba -- What difference does environmental degradation make? : change and its significance in Transjordan / J. Brett Hill -- The earliest residents of Cyprus : ecological pariahs or harmonious settlers? / Alan H. Simmons -- Social changes triggered by Younger Dryas and the early Holocene climatic fluctuations in the Near East / O. Bar-Yosef -- Abandoning the garden : the population/land degradation fallacy as applied to the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin in Mexico / Christopher T. Fisher -- Hohokam and Pima-Maricopa irrigation agriculturalists : maladaptive or resilient societies? / John C. Ravesloot, J. Andrew Darling, and Michael R. Waters.