Linguistic Reconstruction and Historical Ecology in the North Pacific Rim

Linguistic Reconstruction and Historical Ecology in the North Pacific Rim explores human-environmental interactions in the Northern Pacific Rim over the last 10,000 years. It introduces students and researchers to linguistic methods for reconstructing how humans have managed and modified landscapes over millennia. The chapters cover a variety of temporal and geographical ranges, including the coastal areas on both sides of the Pacific from Neolithic to medieval times. This book engages a multitude of Indigenous languages, such as Sinitic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Turkic, Koreanic, Japonic, Ainuic, Amuric, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Yukaghiric, Eskaleut, Na-Dené and Salishan languages. As such, archaeolinguistics is showcased as a truly new frontier in Historical Ecology, bridging the natural and social sciences. The volume adds linguistics to a wide array of windows into the ecological past. This volume is ideal for advanced students and researchers in archaeology, anthropology, genetics, ecology, and geography.