Felipe Fernandez-Armesto theorizes a resolution to the nature of civilization, that societies become civilized by taming and warping nature. Exploring 17 habitats the book zeroes in on features that reflect the quality of life and source of survival in civilizations across ten millennia. Illustrations.
Contents Preface
Introduction: THE ITCH TO CIVILIZE
Civilizations and Civilization The Civilizing Ingredient
The Glutinous Environment
The Mask and Apollo: Recent Definitions and Approaches
Reaching Between Civilizations -- and Reaching for the Unity of Civilization
Process and Progress
The Checklist of Civilization
Back to Nature: Array by Environment
Two Cheers for Civilization
PART ONE: THE WASTE LAND
Desert, Tundra, Ice
Chapter One: THE HELM OF ICE
ICE WORLDS AND TUNDRA AS HUMAN HABITATS
The Ice Age in Europe -- Northern Scandinavia -- Asiatic Tundra -- Arctic America -- Greenland Beyond the Gates of Gog: The Savage North
Followers of the Ice
The Tamers of Reindeer
Companions of the Seal Bladders: Deference to Nature in Arctic America
Better Than Civilization: The Inuit in Competition with Europeans
Chapter Two: THE DEATH OF EARTH
ADAPTATION AND COUNTERADAPTATION IN DESERTS OF SAND
The North American Southwest -- Northern Peru -- the Sahara -- the Gobi -- the Kalahari Learning from Hohokam: How to Build Civilization in the Desert
The Lakes of Worms: The Limits of Civilization in the Sahara
Lands of Unrest: Desert Highways Between Civilizations
Spirits of the Slippery Hills: Bushmen and Civilization
PART TWO: LEAVES OF GRASS
Barely Cultivable Grasslands
Chapter Three: THE SWEEPINGS OF THE WIND
PRAIRIE AND GRASSY SAVANNA
The Great Plains -- the African Savanna -- the Sahel The Intractable Grasslands
The Architects of the Savanna
Imperialists of the Sahel
Chapter Four: THE HIGHWAY OF CIVILIZATIONS
THE EURASIAN STEPPE The Wastes of Gog
A Confucian Contemplates the Wild
The Making of Mongol Imperialism
The Mongol Roads: Causeways of Civilization
PART THREE: UNDER THE RAIN
Civilization in Tropical Lowlands and Postglacial Forests
Chapter Five: THE WILD WOODS
POSTGLACIAL AND TEMPERATE WOODLAND
Cases of Deforestation -- the American Bottom -- North American Temperate Forests -- Europe The Fear of Trees: Learning to Clear the Forests
The Great Wet: Early Civilizations of the North American Woodlands
The Longhouse of Elm: Civilization by the Evergreen Frontier
Riding the Lumber Raft: Europe After the Forest
The Retreat of the Trees: From Forests to Cities in Twelfth-Century Europe
Chapter Six: HEARTS OF DARKNESS
TROPICAL LOWLANDS
Frederik Hendrik Island -- the Olmec Heartland -- Low Amazonia -- the Lowland Maya Lands -- the Valleys of the Khmer -- Benin City The Habitable Hell: Cultivating the Swamp
Amazon Lands: The Challenge of the Rain Forest
The Tongue in the Stones: The Lowland Maya
The Beloved of the Snake: Khmer Civilization on the Mekong
The City of Death: Benin
PART FOUR: THE SHINING FIELDS OF MUD
Alluvial Soils in Drying Climates
Chapter Seven: THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS
MISLEADING CASES IN THE NEAR EAST
The arsamba floodplain -- the Jordan Valley -- Sumer and Egypt The Yielding Soil: Early Intensifiers of Agriculture
The Garden of the Lord: Alluvial Archetypes
Back from Diffusion: The Great River Valleys
From Sumer to Babylon
Out of the Underworld: The "Gift of the Nile"
Chapter Eight: OF SHOES AND RICE
TRANSCENDING ENVIRONMENTS OF ORIGIN IN CHINA AND INDIA
The Indus, Yellow, and Yangtze Rivers Seals in the Sand: Lost Cities of the Indus and the Origins of India
Millet and Rice, River and River: The Making of China
The Checklist of Shang Civilization
The Phoenix of the East: The Survival of China
Expansion Without Mutation: The Chinese Grossraum
PART FIVE: THE MIRRORS OF SKY
Civilizing Highlands
Chapter Nine: THE GARDENS OF THE CLOUDS
The Highland Civilizations of the New World
Mesoamerica and the Andes Altitude and Isolation: Classifying Highland Civilizations
Ascent to Tiahuanaco: Predecessors of the Inca
Places for the Gods: The Context of the Aztecs
Contrasting Worlds: The Aztecs and Inca Juxtaposed
The Vengeance of the Tribute-Bearers: Environment and Empire
Chapter Ten: THE CLIMB TO PARADISE
THE HIGHLAND CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD
New Guinea -- Zimbabwe -- Ethiopia -- Iran -- Tibet The Last El Dorado
The African Predicament
The Mountains of Rasselas: Civilization in Ethiopia
High Roads of Civilization: Overlooking Asian Trade Routes
Looking Down from Tibet
PART SIX: THE WATER MARGINS
Civilizations Shaped by the Sea
Chapter Eleven: THE ALLOTMENTS OF THE GODS
SMALL-ISLAND CIVILIZATIONS
The "South Seas" -- Hawaii and Easter Island -- the Aleutians -- the Maldives -- Malta -- Minoan Crete -- Venice The Tangle of Isles: Polynesian Navigation
Surviving Isolation: Hawaii and Easter Island
The Wind's Nest: The Islands of the Aleut
Ports of Call: From the Maldives to Malta
The Wreck of Paradise: Minoan Crete
The Creature of the Lagoon: Venice as a Small-Island Civilization
Chapter Twelve: THE VIEW FROM THE SHORE
THE NATURE OF SEABOARD CIVILIZATIONS
The Oran laut -- Phoenicia and Scandinavia -- the Maritime Netherlands The Sea People: Adapting to the Waves
The Narrow Shores: Phoenicia and Scandinavia
The Atlantic Edge
The Frustrations of Rimland: The Early Phase
"An Equilibrium of Mud and Water": Coaxing Civilization from the Shoals
Beyond the Beach: Identifying Seaboard Civilizations
Chapter Thirteen: CHASING THE MONSOON
SEABOARD CIVILIZATIONS OF MARITIME ASIA
Japan -- Maritime Arabia -- Southeast Asia -- Coromandel and Gujarat -- Fukien Riders of the Typhoon: Maritime Japan
Caravans of the Monsoon: The Arabs and Their Seas
The Ring of the Snake: The Seas of Southeast Asia
The Seas of Milk and Butter: Maritime India
China's Frontier to the Sea: Fukien
Chapter Fourteen: THE TRADITION OF ULYSSES
THE GREEK AND ROMAN SEABOARDS
Boeotia -- the Greeks Overseas -- Athens -- the Aegean and Ionian Seas -- Rome -- the Roman Empire -- the Renaissances and Their Settings The Plow and the Prow: A Conversation with Hesiod
The Pursuit of Galatea: Greece Takes to the Sea
The Claim of Poseidon: Athens and the Sea
A Hellenic Cruise: Five Wonders of Antiquity
Around the Middle Sea: Ancient Rome as a Seaboard Civilization
The Reach of the Classics: The Global Spread of the Greek and Roman Legacies
PART SEVEN: BREAKING THE WAVES
The Domestication of the Oceans
Chapter Fifteen: ALMOST THE LAST ENVIRONMENT
THE RISE OF OCEANIC CIVILIZATIONS
From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic -- from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean The Muslim Lake
The Precocity of the Indian Ocean
From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic: The Shadow of Vasco da Gama
The Round Trip of Vasco da Gama
Chapter Sixteen: REFLOATING ATLANTIS
THE MAKING OF ATLANTIC CIVILIZATION
Cultural Transmission from Europe to America and Back The Origins of the European Atlantic
The Technological Strand
The Power of Culture
The Tyranny of the Timing
Atlantic Civilization in Black and White: The Imperial Phase
The World the Slaves Made
Chapter Seventeen: THE ATLANTIC AND AFTER
ATLANTIC SUPREMACY AND THE GLOBAL OUTLOOK
From the Atlantic to the Pacific -- from the Pacific to the World Crises and Renewals of Atlantic Civilization
The Limits and Limitations of Western Civilization
Next Stop after the Atlantic
The Revenge of Nature
The Self-Threatened Menace
The Last Ocean
Epilogue: In Derek Jarman's Garden
Notes
Index