Mechanisms of long-term culture change and human impacts on the environment : A perspective from historical ecology, with special reference to the Early and Middle Jomon periods of prehistoric Japan

Abstract

Archaeology is a promising research field for the examination of the causes, conditions, and consequences of long-term culture change. This paper discusses the mechanisms of long-term change in ecosystems and subsistence-settlement systems (economic and social systems) from the perspective of historical ecology and resilience theory. The paper starts with a hypothesis that a highly specialized subsistence strategy can support a larger community for a short period, but a decrease in subsistence and food diversity makes the subsistence systems and their associated community more vulnerable in the long run. Under this hypothesis, climate change can be a trigger, but not necessarily the main cause, for a major change in socioeconomic systems. Archaeological data from the Early to Middle Jomon periods of northeastern Japan, particularly lithic assemblage and floral data from the Sannai Maruyama site in Aomori Prefecture, are examined to test this hypothesis. Assuming that lithic assemblage diversity reflects food and subsistence diversity, the results are consistent with the hypothesis. The approach adopted here can be beneficial for developing a new, interdisciplinary discussion on human-environmental interaction and the importance of maintaining food/subsistence diversity as well as biodiversity. Further study is necessary to examine the importance of other natural and cultural factors, such as climate change and incipient social inequality. Refinements of the chronological scale on the basis of AMS 14 C dates are also needed.