Georgina H. Endfield

Climate and Society in Colonial Mexico (eBook, PDF)

A Study in Vulnerability

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

By considering three case study regions in Mexico during the Colonial era, Climate and Society in Colonial Mexico: A Study in Vulnerability examines the complex interrelationship between climate and society and its contemporary implications. * Provides unique insights on climate and society by capitalizing on Mexico's rich colonial archives * Offers a unique approach by combining geographical and historic perspectives in order to comprehend contemporary concerns over climate change * Considers three case study regions in Mexico with very different cultural, economic, and environmental characteristics

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
• Seitenzahl: 248
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. September 2008
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780470712573
• Artikelnr.: 38193000

Autorenporträt

Georgina H. Endfield is a Reader in Environmental History in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham. She has published papers in a wide variety of journals, including the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, and is winner of a Philip Leverhulme Prize. She is editor of the journal Environment and History.

Inhaltsangabe

List of Tables and Figures.

Series Editors' Preface.

Acknowledgements.

1 A Vulnerable Society.

Introduction.

Changing Vulnerabilities.

Climate Change and the 'Double-Sided' Structure of Vulnerability5

Exploring Climate and Society in Mexico.

Climate History and Vulnerability in Mexico.

Case Studies and Approach.

2 Climate, Culture and Conquest: North, South and CentralMexico in the Pre-European and Contact Period.

Environmental Marginality and Society in the Conchos Basin,Chihuahua.

Guanajuato and the Chichimec Territory.

Power and Political Growth in the Central Valley of Oaxaca.

3 Exploring the Anatomy of Vulnerability in ColonialMexico.

Introduction.

The Tools of Conquest and Colonization.

The Emergence of Regional Colonial Political Economies.

Climatic Variability and Vulnerability in Colonial Mexico: APreview.

4 Responding to Crisis: Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacityin Colonial Mexico.

Introduction.

Moral Economic and Institutional Responses to Climate and Crisisin Colonial Mexico.

Speculation and Scarcity: Capitalizing on Climate Knowledge.

Trade in Grains: Providing for the 'Engines' of the ColonialPolitical Economy.

Tribute, Food Aid and the Supernatural: Appealing to a CommonSense of Loss.

'Compadrazgo', Community Engagement and Public Works.

'Most sensitive and saddening events': Flood Risk and SocialCapital Response in Colonial Guanajuato.

'Great floods' and 'Strong winds': Damaging Events, Adaptationand 'Non-Adaptation' in Colonial Oaxaca.

Responding Strategically: Climate, Consciousness andExperimentation.

5 Dearth, Deluge and Disputes: Negotiating and LitigatingWater and Climate in Colonial Mexico.

Introduction.

Water and Local 'Everyday Conflicts' in the Country andCity.

Regional Resistance: Drought, Disease and Rebellion in NorthernMexico.

Vulnerability, Riots and Rebellions: Rare Events or 'TippingPoints'?

6 Illusory Prosperity: Economic Growth and Subsistence Crisisin the Disastrous Eighteenth Century.

Introduction.

Decline and Depression in Seventeenth-Century Mexico.

Economic Boom and Bust: Absolutism and Globalization in LateColonial Mexico.

'A time of calamity': A Synthesis of Climate and Crises in LateColonial Mexico.

From Crisis to Insurrection: Vulnerability and Popular Unrest inthe Early Nineteenth Century.

7 Regional, National and Global Dimensions of Vulnerabilityand Crisis in Colonial Mexico.

Introduction.

Prolonged Drought and the Conditions of Crisis in Late ColonialChihuahua.

Drought, Risk and the Social Construction of Flooding in theBajío.

Resilience and the Rare Event: Climate, Society and Human Choicein the Indigenous South.

Crises in Context and Historical 'Double Exposure'.

Closing Comments.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

Rezensionen

"This impressive archival study on Mexico provides ahistorical perspective on environmental change and the culturalresponse in such detail and depth that it will be used by manydisciplines as global warming produces more frequent anddevastating climate events in Mesoamerica and elsewhere. SummingUp: Highly recommended." (CHOICE, February 2009)

"Mexico is well known for its vulnerability to a variety ofdisasters, ranging from droughts and floods to devastatingepidemics. Using extensive archival resources in Mexico and Spain,environmental historian Endfield (Univ. of Nottingham) focuses onthree regions with their diverse environments--the Rio ConchosBasin in the state of Chihuahua, Guanajuato and the Chichimecterritory, and the Valley of Oaxaca--to compare and contrast theimpact of climate crises on the economic and social-politicalsystems of the agrarian Indian and Spanish societies of colonialMexico from 1521 to 1820. The author discusses climate disasters ofthe late pre-Hispanic period, as well as the prehistory of thethree study regions. Repeated climate events resulted in societaldisruption, demographic changes, and conflict. Endfield shows howthe societies in these three regions coped with and adapted to therisks and hazards of extreme weather over the centuries. Thisimpressive archival study on Mexico provides a historicalperspective on environmental change and the cultural response insuch detail and depth that it will be used by many disciplines asglobal warming produces more frequent and devastating climateevents in Mesoamerica and elsewhere." (J. B. RichardsonIII, University of Pittsburgh, Choice, February2009) "This book provides a fascinating and empirically rich account ofhow vulnerabilities to variations in climate, especially to droughtand flood, were created and experienced over several centuries.Based on meticulous work in the historical archives, Georgina H.Endfield gives a distinctive long term perspective on theinteractions between nature and political economy that producedfood crises, water conflicts and devastating flood losses incolonial Mexico, and which echo down the years to illuminate ourunderstanding of the new crises of vulnerability and adaptation ina warming world."
-Diana Liverman, University of Oxford

"With a deft and informed pen, Endfield carries the readerrapidly through the escalating crises of colonial Mexico. Based onrich documentation Endfield sketches environmental disasters andepidemics, the looming problem of population growth and subsistenceshortfalls, and the illusion of economic growth. She illustrates,in a responsible and fascinating way, how vulnerability and humanresponse can serve as an empirical and conceptual approach to studycausality."
-Karl Butzer, The University of Texas at Austin