Sponsored by Exploring Solutions Past - The Maya Forest Alliance
San Jose McEnery Convention Center 17 November

Organizers:
Anabel Ford UC Santa Barbara
Janine Gasco CSU-Dominguez Hills

The world is at a critical juncture where resources and populations are colliding. Among the challenges that face humankind around the globe in the 21st century, the increasingly rapid pace of environmental change and degradation is a particularly dangerous trend. As debates rage about the causes of environmental change and strategies for reversing environmental destruction, it is clear that an understanding of these issues will only be achieved through truly multidisciplinary approaches that bridge research and interpretations from the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences.

Addressing the 2006 AAA theme of "critical intersections/dangerous issues," this symposium examines the nature of environmental change in the Mesoamerican tropics, focusing on the topic of the human-environmental dynamic, a condition that is widely regarded as having reached a critical point. We propose to examine this issue in two ways: first as a critical intersection in human history and second as an essential intersection of disciplines. As Mesoamerica and other parts of the world face rapid environmental changes there is an urgency to integrate perspectives that bridge disciplines and time. Multidisciplinary and diachronic interpretations together can provide vital insights and alternatives to current land use trajectories.

This symposium brings together researchers from several disciplines within the humanities and the social, biological, and physical sciences to explore tropical Mesoamerican landscapes from prehistoric to contemporary times. We focus on identifying the dynamic relationships between humans and their environment in tropical Mesoamerica and how these relationships have been manifested from the past to the present. The participants in this symposium present convergent views from divergent disciplines. They recognize the role of the local context in understanding environmental changes. Importantly, the perspectives and approaches of these scholars transcend the bounds of a single field, illuminating the significance of reaching across disciplines to address universal problems.

To better appreciate changing Mesoamerican landscapes, we focus on the historical foundations and contemporary patterns of local subsistence strategies and the contributions of rural small holders to the conservation of tropical biodiversity. Our examination of historic and contemporary land use patterns and their environmental impacts rests on the basic assumption that Mesoamerica has been a humanized landscape for millennia. Environmental changes witnessed today are an accumulation of human adaptations that began with prehistoric foragers and agriculturalists, continued through colonial developments, and have culminated in the contemporary situation. As we examine patterns of local land use in the past and traditional subsistence practices of the present we also explore the role of these practices in the context of contemporary environmental transformation.

Timothy Murtha Penn State
Settlement Ecology and Landscape Archaeology in the Central Lowlands: The Historical Ecology of Tikal

Scott Fedick UC Riverside
Maya Cornucopia: Food Plants Available to the Ancient Maya

William Denevan: U Wisconsin-Madison
The Ecological Transition, 1491/1492

Name:Janine Gasco CSU-Dominguez Hills
'Le da alegria tener flores': Home Gardens and Biodiversity in the Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico

Stephen Gliessman UC Santa Cruz
Flexibility and Resistance to Change in Tropical Home Gardens in Tabasco, Mexico

Macduff Everton Jounalist
Maya Home & Forest Gardens: a Photographic Essay

David Campbell Grinnell College
Discussant