Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands

Book review of Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands. William Balée and Clark L. Erickson, editors. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. The Historical Ecology Series. xii + 417 pp., maps, figures, tables, notes, references, index. $80.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-231-13288-3. [www.columbia.edu/cu/cup

Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands

Book review of Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands. William Balée and Clark L. Erickson, editors. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. The Historical Ecology Series. xii + 417 pp., maps, figures, tables, notes, references, index. ISBN 0-231-13288-3

Amazon Sweet Sea: Land, Life, and Water at the River’s Mouth

Book review of Amazon Sweet Sea: Land, Life, and Water at the River’s Mouth. Nigel J.H. Smith. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. xii + 296 pp., plates, map, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-292-77770-1

Mobility and Migration in Indigenous Amazonia: Contemporary Ethnoecological Perspectives

Book review of Mobility and Migration in Indigenous Amazonia: Contemporary Ethnoecological Perspectives. Miguel. N. Alexiades, editor. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009. Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology. Xviii + 310 pp., figures, tables, notes, references, index. $90.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-84545-563-7 [http://www.berghahnbooks.com]

Perspectivas transhistóricas sobre mercadorias, fetichismo e sistemas mundiais: Tecnologias de exploração ao longo de cinco mil anos

A caminho!Mercadorias, produção de exportação, dinheiro, preços de mercado, trabalho assalariado,acumulação de capital e tecnologias dependentes de sistemas mundiais podem ser rastreados até a Idade do Bronze. As continuidades dificultam analiticamente a identificação de um determinado ponto na história em que o "capitalismo" nasceu. O exemplo inca ilustra como a acumulação de capital e a exploração por meio de trocas de longa distância podem ser identificadas mesmo na ausência de dinheiro. Os mercados modernos e o ritual inca sugerem duas formas alternativas de obscurecer a troca fisicamente desigual, projetando ilusões de reciprocidade. A cerveja de milho servida pelos incas tinha uma função semelhante à do salário moderno. A reciprocidade fictícia dos preços do mercado moderno parece ser um exemplo de um fenômeno mais fundamental do metabolismo social que pode ser identificado até mesmo nas economias não monetárias dos Andes pré-hispânicos. Assim como as fábricas de algodão na Grã-Bretanha industrializada, os terraços de milho dos incas representavam capital no sentido de uma infraestrutura material e produtiva continuamente ampliada por meio de uma mistificação cultural de trocas desiguais. Hoje, podemos reconhecer o papel da tecnologia industrial no sistema mundial como uma nova estratégia de apropriação do tempo-espaço. A novidade da Revolução Industrial foi delegar a exploração e as desigualdades à lógica combinada de mercados e máquinas

Emberi tényező? Az antropocén-narratíva kritikája

Az antropocén-narratíva úgy mutatja be az emberiséget, mint a Föld rendszerét uralma alá hajtó fajt. A klímaváltozás kérdését tekintve eszerint a fosszilis üzemanyagok égetése vissza- vezethető az emberi faj evolúciója során elsajátított képességekre, különösen a tűzhasználatra. De a fosszilis gazdaságot nem az emberiség egésze hozta létre, sem nem az tartja fenn. Ez a vitacikk megkérdőjelezi a faj kategóriájának használatát az antropocén-narratívában, amely nem csupán tudományosan elhibázott, hanem a cselekvést is bénítja. Az emberi fajon belüli egyenlőtlenségek a jelenlegi ökológiai válság szerves részét képezik, ezért ha meg akarjuk érteni ezt a válságot, nem hagyhatjuk ezeket figyelmen kívül

Ecologically unequal exchange and ecological debt

This article introduces a Special Section on Ecologically Unequal Exchange (EUE), an underlying source of most of the environmental distribution conflicts in our time. The nine articles discuss theories, methodologies, and empirical case studies pertaining to ecologically unequal exchange, and address its relationship to ecological debt. Key words: Ecologically Unequal Exchange, ecological debt, political ecology   This is the introductory article in Alf Hornborg and Joan Martinez-Alier (eds.) 2016. "Ecologically unequal exchange and ecological debt", Special Section of the Journal of Political Ecology 23: 328-491

Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange:Implications for sustainability in the 21st century

Ecologically unequal exchange theory posits asymmetric net flows of biophysical resources from poorer to richer countries. To date, empirical evidence to support this theoretical notion as a systemic aspect of the global economy is largely lacking. Through environmentally-extended multi-regional input-output modelling, we provide empirical evidence for ecologically unequal exchange as a persistent feature of the global economy from 1990 to 2015. We identify the regions of origin and final consumption for four resource groups: materials, energy, land, and labor. By comparing the monetary exchange value of resources embodied in trade, we find significant international disparities in how resource provision is compensated. Value added per ton of raw material embodied in exports is 11 times higher in high-income countries than in those with the lowest income, and 28 times higher per unit of embodied labor. With the exception of embodied land for China and India, all other world regions serve as net exporters of all types of embodied resources to high-income countries across the 1990–2015 time period. On aggregate, ecologically unequal exchange allows high-income countries to simultaneously appropriate resources and to generate a monetary surplus through international trade. This has far-reaching implications for global sustainability and for the economic growth prospects of nations