scholarly journals It’s not only the sea: a history of human intervention in the beach-dune ecosystem of Costa da Caparica (Portugal)

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-247
Author(s):  
Monique Palma ◽  
João Alveirinho Dias ◽  
Joana Gaspar Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Coastal Erosion ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Intervention ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The 19Th Century

Costa da Caparica, located south of Lisbon, has been since the 1960s the favourite beach of the population of the Portuguese capital. The bridge over the Tagus river (1966), connecting the two margins, has facilitated the access to that wide beach of sand and dunes. Due to its natural features and proximity to Lisbon, Caparica become a highly populated area, where different social and economic activities compete for the use of the available space, increasing pressure upon the local ecosystems. The situation is even more problematic, because that littoral has been deeply affected by coastal erosion from the 1950s onwards. Authorities have been dealing with the issue using groynes and artificial beach nourishments. Since 2015, the Municipality of Almada is investing in the rehabilitation of the dunes of the beach of S. João, placing fences to retain the sand and planting vegetation. This programme is particularly interesting from a coastal management history point of view, because these dunes have been the object of many interventions with different purposes, but what was done and why is not very well known. The aim of this article is therefore to present the results of a historical research about human intervention in Costa da Caparica and, particularly at S. João beach, starting in the 19th century, with the first dunes’ survey, the afforestation experiences and the construction of a drainage system. This paper offers a long-term perspective on the socio-evolution of these hybrid environments. Results and discussion show how dunes were trimmed by the works carried out and the reasons that laid beneath these. Revealing the ideas and values, the social, economic and political pressures, that across the years and within the same time period, shaped management strategies and landscapes. Keywords: Environmental History; Dunes Rehabilitation; Afforestation; Wetlands; Coastal Erosion.

The Historiography of Environmental History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. McNeill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.

The Public and Economic Activities of the Hִatim Family of Istanbul: A Chapter in the History of the Jewish Leadership in Istanbul and Jerusalem in the 19th Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-127
Author(s):  
Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Elite ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

This article discusses the biographies and economic and public activities of the Ḥatim family in Istanbul in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century. Most of the attention is focused on R. Shlomo Ḥatim and his son Yitsḥak, who were members of the Jewish elite in Istanbul and settled in Jerusalem at the ends of their lives. R. Shlomo, who is said to have served the Ottoman authorities in Istanbul, settled in Jerusalem more than ten years before the leaders of the Jewish economic elite in Istanbul were executed in the 1820s. His son, surviving this purge, followed much later, immigrating to Israel in 1846, but died immediately thereafter. This article provides insights into the business activities of the Ḥatim family, as well as the activities of Yitsḥak Ḥatim as an Ottoman official in Istanbul. I also discuss two more generations of this family, considered an elite, privileged one, and that was highly esteemed among well-known rabbis in the Ottoman Empire. I also discuss the ties that developed between the communities of Istanbul and Jerusalem in the first half of the 19th century as a result of initiatives of officials in Istanbul and of immigration from Istanbul to Jerusalem.

‘Morals can not be drawn from facts but guidance may be’: the early life of W.D. Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARAH A. SWENSON
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Selfish Gene ◽  
New Synthesis ◽  
Sociopolitical Context ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Social Order

AbstractW.D. Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness saw the evolution of altruism from the point of view of the gene. It was at heart a theory of limits, redefining altruistic behaviours as ultimately selfish. This theory inspired two controversial texts published almost in tandem, E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975) and Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene (1976). When Wilson and Dawkins were attacked for their evolutionary interpretations of human societies, they claimed a distinction between reporting what is and declaring what ought to be. Can the history of sociobiological theories be so easily separated from its sociopolitical context? This paper draws upon unpublished materials from the 1960s and early 1970s and documents some of the ways in which Hamilton saw his research as contributing to contemporary concerns. It pays special attention to the 1969 Man and Beast Smithsonian Institution symposium in order to explore the extent to which Hamilton intended his theory to be merely descriptive versus prescriptive. From this, we may see that Hamilton was deeply concerned about the political chaos he perceived in the world around him, and hoped to arrive at a level of self-understanding through science that could inform a new social order.

Gariwerd

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wilkie
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
National Park ◽  
Ecological Significance ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Victoria ◽  
The 19Th Century

People have been visiting and living in the Victorian Grampians, also known as Gariwerd, for thousands of generations. They have both witnessed and caused vast environmental transformations in and around the ranges. Gariwerd: An Environmental History of the Grampians explores the geological and ecological significance of the mountains and combines research from across disciplines to tell the story of how humans and the environment have interacted, and how the ways people have thought about the environments of the ranges have changed through time. In this new account, historian Benjamin Wilkie examines how Djab wurrung and Jardwadjali people and their ancestors lived in and around the mountains, how they managed the land and natural resources, and what kinds of archaeological evidence they have left behind over the past 20 000 years. He explores the history of European colonisation in the area from the middle of the 19th century and considers the effects of this on both the first people of Gariwerd and the environments of the ranges and their surrounding plains in western Victoria. The book covers the rise of science, industry and tourism in the mountains, and traces the eventual declaration of the Grampians National Park in 1984. Finally, it examines more recent debates about the past, present and future of the park, including over its significant Indigenous history and heritage.

Ancient water robotics and Abou-l Iz Al-Jazari

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 699-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zekâi Şen
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Southeastern Part ◽  
Water Power ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

Although water resources have been developed throughout the centuries for the service of different civilizations, at different scales and in different regions, their use in automation has been conceived only recently. Research into the history of water from an automation point of view has led to some unknown or hidden facts. Starting from the ancient Greek period before the prophet Christ and after about the 12th century, many researchers tried to make use of water power for working some simple but effective devices for the service of mankind. Among these are the haulage of water from a lower level to a higher elevation by water wheels in order to irrigate agricultural land. Hero during the Hellenistic period and Vitruvius of the Roman Empire were among the first who tried to make use of water power for use in different human activities, such as water haulage, watermills, water clocks, etc. The highlights of these works were achieved by a 12th century Muslim researcher, Abou-l Iz Al-Jazari, who lived in the southeastern part of modern day Turkey. He reviewed all the previous work from different civilizations and then suggested his own designs and devices for the use of water power in automation of excellent types. He even combined animals and water power through early designs of valves, pistons, cylinders and crank mills, as will be explained in this paper. His works were revealed by German historians and engineers in the first quarter of the 19th century. Later, an English engineer translated his book from Arabic into English, revealing the guidelines for modern automation and robotic designs originating from the 12th century. This paper gives a brief summary of the early workers' devices and Abou-l Iz Al-Jazari's much more developed designs with his original hand-drawn pictures.

scholarly journals Archaeological Excursion into Proximal Colony

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Palavestra
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina by the end of the 19th century, presided by Benjamin Kallay, the Empire’s Minister of Finance and governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, strived to gain wider international justification for its years’ long project of “civilizing” Bosnia and Herzegovina, or particular “historizing” of this proximal colony. In the summer of 1894 the Austro-Hungarian government in Bosnia and Herzegovina organized the Congress of Archaeologists and Anthropologists in the Landesmuseum in Sarajevo. The aim of the Congress was to inform archaeologists and anthropologists about the results of archaeological investigations in the country, and to seek their advice in directing further work. The wider ideological, political, as well as theoretical context of this congress, however, was much more complex and layered, with the aim to present the constructed image of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of tamed and civilized European Orient of rich past and luxurious folklore. The participants of the Congress discussed the archaeological and anthropological data presented to them by the hosts, including the specially organized excavations at Butmir and Glasinac. It is interesting to analyze, from the point of view of the history of archaeological ideas, the endeavours of the participants to adapt the archaeological finds before them to the wishes of the hosts, and, on the other hand, to their favoured archaeological paradigms dominant at the time.

A history of varying methods for determining tree age in Estonia with emphasis on oak

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Heldur Sander
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Tree Bark ◽  
Tree Age ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Oak Trees ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ring Method ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The 19Th Century

AbstractThis paper explores the history of age detection of trees, especially the age history of oak trees, throughout two centuries in Estonia. It was already in the beginning of the 19th century when relations between the size and age of oaks in northern Latvia (previous Livonian province) were described. The paper explains how the species concept of Quercus robur developed over time in the past and points out discussions on the existence of two varieties Q. robur L. var. tardiflora Czern and Q. robur L. var. praecox Czern. It also states that thanks to the use of the increment borer, the first dendrochronological studies were carried out in Estonia in the 1920s. Dendrochronological research in the Soviet Union began in the 1950s with Lithuania being the leading country in the field headed by Teodaras Bitvinskas. In Estonia, research was continued in the 1960s until now. The paper takes a look at the life of Mart Rohtla who introduced the method of determining tree age according to tree bark, presents his standpoints on oaks and critically assesses these. A comparative assessment is given on the ages of oak and lime trees found according to the tree-ring method and bark increment method. The great ages of the oaks and limes found by applying the bark increments method are doubted and considered unreliable. However, the age of the surface layers of the bark of oaks and limes needs clarification in the future.

Militarizing Rubber

2018 ◽  
pp. 245-279
Author(s):  
Michitake Aso
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Rubber Plantations ◽  
Northern Latitudes ◽  
War Machine ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
And Behavior

The extreme violence brought to bear on the Vietnamese society and environment by the American war machine during the 1960s meant that measures taken by South Vietnamese leaders ended up sustaining plantation production. Ironically, the communist insurgency also benefited from rubber plantations, which continued to serve as a valuable source of material and recruits. Meanwhile, North Vietnamese rubber experts worked to extend the range of hevea into more northern latitudes so that latex could flow in the socialist world. Chapter 7 extends the history of rubber to 1975 to show the ways that memories of colonialism continued to structure thoughts and behavior regarding rubber, and suggests why human-environment interactions on the plantations of post-1975 socialist Vietnam often resembled those of their colonial predecessors. This chapter focuses on the degree to which colonial discourse as materialized on plantations was subverted by various actors and revisits the historiography of the Vietnam War by adopting the lens of environmental history to show the unexpected consequences of plantation agriculture. Finally, it considers how the post–World War II development of “synthetic” rubber affected the actions of those associated with “natural” rubber plantations.

Եղիա Տեմիրճիպաշյան. Բազմավաստակ գրողն ու մտավորականը

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
Պետրոս Դեմիրճյան
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Creative Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Armenian Literature ◽  
Complex Phenomena ◽  
The 19Th Century

Writer, publicist, philosopher, pedagogue, editor Yeghia Temirchipashyan (1851–1908) occupies a special place in the history of Armenian literature and, in particular, in the national-social, educational and cultural development of the last quarter of the 19th century. He was destined to live and create for our people, truly, in a crucial historical time, when not only national and public life, but also scientific and meaningful creative thought was undergoing rapid reforms. In the oppressive atmosphere of the Sultan’s Turkey, even the creative spirit of Armenians tried to find a way out of the developments taking place in the world, the sources of progress and the latest ways. In the system of communication and internal transfers, Y. Temirchipashyan gave priority to the present time. Soberly assessing the current requirements of life, he felt and realized that time has changed, the human being has changed. That is why, considering the Mashtots Grabar adored, he advocated the use of a manifests when assessing the complex phenomena of the transition time experienced by him from the point of view of the life and progress of the nation and society as a whole. In his famous articles entitled “The Evolution of the Beauty” “The Element of the Philosophy of History”, “A Hassle over Bringing up Girls or a Speech of Broom”, encouraging the influx of European literary, scientific and philosophical thought into the Armenian reality, he was against the intention to accept with open arms all the shepherds and currents coming from the West. At the same time, having mastered new aesthetic and philosophical trends, he also encouraged reading “nutritious, strengthening, awaking books”, and did not stop believing in the optimistic prospects of the nation and the Motherland.

scholarly journals A palaeobiogeographic model for biotic diversification within Amazonia over the past three million years

2011 ◽  
Vol 279 (1729) ◽  
pp. 681-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila C. Ribas ◽  
Alexandre Aleixo ◽  
Afonso C. R. Nogueira ◽  
Cristina Y. Miyaki ◽  
Joel Cracraft
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
High Species Diversity ◽  
Areas Of Endemism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Major River ◽  
Glacial Climate

Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain high species diversity in Amazonia, but few generalizations have emerged. In part, this has arisen from the scarcity of rigorous tests for mechanisms promoting speciation, and from major uncertainties about palaeogeographic events and their spatial and temporal associations with diversification. Here, we investigate the environmental history of Amazonia using a phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of trumpeters (Aves: Psophia ), which are represented by species in each of the vertebrate areas of endemism. Their relationships reveal an unforeseen ‘complete’ time-slice of Amazonian diversification over the past 3.0 Myr. We employ this temporally calibrated phylogeny to test competing palaeogeographic hypotheses. Our results are consistent with the establishment of the current Amazonian drainage system at approximately 3.0–2.0 Ma and predict the temporal pattern of major river formation over Plio-Pleistocene times. We propose a palaeobiogeographic model for the last 3.0 Myr of Amazonian history that has implications for understanding patterns of endemism, the temporal history of Amazonian diversification and mechanisms promoting speciation. The history of Psophia , in combination with new geological evidence, provides the strongest direct evidence supporting a role for river dynamics in Amazonian diversification, and the absence of such a role for glacial climate cycles and refugia.

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