Time is divided by geologists according to marked shifts in Earth's state. Recent global environmental changes suggest that Earth may have entered a new human-dominated geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Here we review the historical genesis of the idea and assess anthropogenic signatures in the geological record against the formal requirements for the recognition of a new epoch. The evidence suggests that of the various proposed dates two do appear to conform to the criteria to mark the beginning of the Anthropocene: 1610 and 1964. The formal establishment of an Anthropocene Epoch would mark a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and the Earth system.

Defining the Anthropocene

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Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

The Middle Ground. Indians, Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1615-1850, de Richard White

Introduction Part I: 1. The Steppe Highway: the rise of pastoral nomadism as a Eurasian phenomenon 2. Bronze, iron and gold: the evolution of nomadic cultures on the northern frontier of China Part II: 3. Beasts and birds: the historical context of early Chinese perceptions of northern peoples 4. Walls and horses: the beginning of historical contacts between horse-riding Nomads and Chinese states Part III: 5. Those who draw the bow: the rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the political unification of the Nomads 6. From peace to war: China's shift from appeasement to military engagement Part IV: 7. In search of grass and water: ethnography and history of the North in the Historian's Records 8. Taming the North: the rationalization of the nomads in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's historical thought Conclusion.

Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History . By Nicola Di Cosmo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ix, 369 pp. $70.00 (cloth).

Review of: The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 White, Richard

https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/annals-of-iowa/article/7831/galley/116549/download/

The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815

Vegetation, climate and human impact since 20 ka in central Yunnan Province based on high-resolution pollen and charcoal records from Dianchi, southwestern China

Archaeology of ancient China’s periphery has traditionally been examined through the historiographic lens of Chinese textual sources. Social developments in the periphery are often explained in relation to accounts of migration from “core” regions of China. Setting conventional paradigms and textual sources aside, this article examines prehistoric developments in southwestern China in conjunction with broader trends in Southeast Asia. This comparative approach reveals that the development of bronze metallurgy in southwestern China parallels trends observed among Neolithic communities in Southeast Asia. Using recent data and a reassessment of radiocarbon dates for the Bronze Age, I propose that sociopolitical complexity emerged in southwestern China as part of a multiregional phenomenon that had its beginning with the formalization of trade networks during the Neolithic period.

Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Southwestern China

Landscapes have been shaped by human activities for millennia and there is a pressing need to characterize pre-industrial impacts in order to mitigate present-day effects. We present the analysis o...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683618816504

Two millennia of anthropogenic landscape modification and nutrient loading at Dian Lake, Yunnan Province, China:

Concepts such as creolization and hybridity offer inclusive frameworks to study identity formation emanating from cross-cultural interaction. The borrowing of such concepts developed from recent history must contend with their relevance for the past as well as their applicability for understanding objects with mixed cultural features. This article reassesses the hybrid concept by contrasting a cognitive approach that identifies the figurative processes behind the local adaptation of foreign things. Looking at objects from Han China and the northern Black Sea, I examine how nomads and imperial agents conceptualized foreign objects through metonymic and metaphoric associations to influence understandings of self and group identity.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0959774312000042

Alice Yao

Papers

Vegetation, climate and human impact since 20 ka in central Yunnan Province based on high-resolution pollen and charcoal records from Dianchi, southwestern China

Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Southwestern China

Two millennia of anthropogenic landscape modification and nutrient loading at Dian Lake, Yunnan Province, China:

Sarmatian Mirrors and Han Ingots (100 BC–AD 100): How the Foreign became Local and Vice Versa

Scratching beneath iconographic and textual clues: A reconsideration of the social hierarchy in the Dian culture of Southwestern China