Human Ecodynamics of Subarctic Islands of the North Atlantic and North Pacific in Comparative Perspective

Summary

The subarctic islands of the North Atlantic and North Pacific share a number of ecological characteristics, related to common latitudes and similar oceanographic and atmospheric conditions. Both regions were occupied in pre-modern times by subsistence harvesters with varying degrees of dependence on the marine environments for survival, and both areas became incorporated into capitalist, commercial fishing and hunting markets in the past several centuries. We compare the historical ecology of maritime fishing/hunting of these regions and consider the hypothesis that commoditized harvests increased the vulnerability of subsistence communities to environmental perturbations more easily weathered when stocks were less heavily impacted.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Model Environments: Human Ecodynamics on Islands

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