Climate, History, and Culture: The Power of Change

Abstract

Global climate change and its consequences for humankind opens up a research field for exploring the diverse dimensions and forces of change through time. Chief among the objects of inquiry is how climatic shifts impact on ecological and social structures and developments and what human agencies are able to unfold under given conditions. Conclusions from such reciprocities can help to deliver a differentiated approach to the inroads of anthropogenic climate change. Central to this enterprise are such analytic perspectives as the discipline of anthropology can bring to researching the impact of climate change on human societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• human agency
• migration
• representation
• social resilience

Notes

¹A brief comment on the authors’ rendition of timelines. Burroughs (2008:2) uses kya to mean “thousand years ago” and kyr to mean “thousand years earlier.” Hassan (2009:47), on the other hand, uses kyr to mean “thousand years ago.” Hetherington and Reid use neither of these acronyms.

²On this debate see also Kempf (2009), McNamara (2007), Oliver-Smith (2009).