International Workshop
“Climate Change and Food Diversity in the Past and Present: Comparative Studies on the North Pacific and Atlantic Coasts”

The goals of this workshop are 1) to examine the causes, conditions and consequences of long-term changes in human-environmental interactions, with a focus on the impacts of climate change and human/natural disasters, and 2) to discuss the contributions of archaeological and paleoenvironmental case studies to the current debate on local and global environmental problems. A particular emphasis is on the correlations between food/subsistence diversity, movements of people, goods and information, and the scale of socioeconomic systems. Case studies examined in this workshop include those focusing on the both sides of the North Pacific Rim as well as those on the Atlantic.

Date & Hours: Thursday, July 30, 2015, 9:00 – 12:00
Venue: Lecture Hall, RIHN( → Access)
Title: “Climate Change and Food Diversity in the Past and Present: Comparative Studies on the North Pacific and Atlantic Coasts”
Language: English
Organiser: Long-term Sustainability through Place-Based, Small-scale Economies: Approaches from Historical Ecology, RIHN
Contact: Mari Takehara E-mail
Flyer: → 　Click here

Program (subject to change)

  1. 9:00 - 9:10

    2. Opening Statement

    Junko Habu (RIHN)

  2. 9:10 - 9:25

    3. Sedentism, Subsistence Specialization and Human Impacts on the Environment: A Case Study from the Jomon Period, Northern Japan

    Junko Habu (RIHN)

  3. 9:25 - 9:40

    4. Linking Historical Ecology of Fisheries to Communities Past and Present in the Gulf of Alaska

    Nicole Misarti (University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

  4. 9:40 - 9:55

    5. Recent Climate Change and Historical Ecology of Yup'ik (Eskimo) and Dena'ina (Athabascan) Peoples in the Bristol Bay Region, Southwestern Alaska

    David Yesner (University of Alaska, Anchorage)

  5. 9:55 - 10:10

    6. Subsistence, Land Use and Resistance to Natural Disasters of the Prehistoric Society: A Case Study in Northern Japan

    Katsunori Takase (Hokkaido University)

  6. 10:10 - 10:30

    7. Tea Break

  7. 10:30 - 10:45

    8. Human-Environment Dynamics in Riverine Landscapes: Long and Short Term Perspectives from Central Japan

    Simon Kaner (Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures)

  8. 10:45 - 11:00

    9. Historical Ecology in the North Atlantic Islands- Progress and Potentials

    Thomas McGovern (Hunter College, City University of New York)

  9. 11:00 - 11:15

    10. Human Adaptation to North Pacific Islands in the Context of Atmospheric and Oceanic Variability

    Ben Fitzhugh (University of Washington)

  10. 11:15 - 11:50

    11. Discussion

  11. 11:50 - 12:00

    12. Closing Remarks

    Tetsuzo Yasunari （Director-General, RIHN）

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