New Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Land Use Dynamics in the Andes during the Late Holocene

The nature and scale of changes in Late Holocene land-use in the Neotropics have become a major focus for researchers exploring the intensity of past human-environment feedbacks. While much attention has been placed on the Amazon Basin in this regard, ecological and geographical research has highlighted the significance of human impact on dry tropical and montane tropical forests in other parts of the Neotropics, including the Central Andes, in the context of responses of unique biodiversity, soil erosion, and carbon cycling.

The nature and scale of changes in land use in the Neotropics during the late Holocene have become a major focus for researchers exploring the intensity of past human-environment feedbacks. The Andes is one of the world’s most biodiverse macro-regions, ranging from the Pacific coast, the highland plateaus and valleys, and the eastern subtropical forests and lowlands. These regions faced socio-political and environmental processes operating at different scales and intensities, providing a variety of examples that serve as an asset to evaluate the impact of human populations into past environments. The main goal of this special issue will be to present multiple theoretical and methodological approaches to understand past human interaction with different environments through the Andes during the Late Holocene.

Goal:

We expect the submission of manuscripts that address the historical processes of land use change in different areas of the Andes during the last three millennia, with special emphasis on productive practices and their impacts on the environment, as well as the implications of historical, social, political and economical changes into historical environmental impacts. In particular, we are interested in analyzing the articulation of theoretical and methodological tools to study these
processes, as well as the contribution of different disciplines, analytical techniques and the work with local communities in relation to this subject. We encourage local scholars from the Andean region to submit their work to improve multidisciplinary representation from this part of the world.

Scope and information for authors:

- study cases of archaeological, historical and modern landscapes
- spatial modelling
- paleobotany
- geoarchaeology
- zooarchaeology
- paleoenvironmental records
- etnohistorical and historical records
- etnoarchaeology
- interdisciplinary approaches.