The relationship between climate and society is complex. Time and again history has shown that responses to climatic changes and extreme weather events vary greatly between different social groups. A variety of factors - demographic,social, political and economic - influence how a society perceives, responds to, and copes with extreme weather events. With its series of floods and frosts, droughts and hurricanes, few societies have had their resilience and resourcefulness tested like Mexico's in her colonial era.Within this historical framework, "Climate and Society in Colonial Mexico: A Study in Vulnerability" provides a timely examination of the human impact of climate change and its contemporary implications. By considering three broadly differentiated case study regions - Chihuahua's arid Conchos Basin, the lush Oaxaca Valley, and Guanajuatoin the Bajio of Mexico - the text offers valuable insights into how differentsocieties articulate knowledge about climate and the environment and how theyrespond to climatic variability. Capitalizing on Mexico's rich colonial archives - many published here for the first time - the study provides a unique historical perspective into the complex interrelationships between climate and vulnerable societies. By examining the past, "Climate and Society in Colonial Mexico" offers valuable insights into contemporary climatic changes, environmental impacts, the vulnerability of societies, and our increasing concerns for the future of our planet. INDICE: List of Tables, Figures and IllustrationsSeries Editors' PrefaceAcknowledgments1. A Vulnerable SocietyIntroductionChanging VulnerabilitiesClimate Change and the 'Double Sided' Structure of VulnerabilityExploring Climate and Society in MexicoClimate History and Vulnerability in MexicoCase Studies andApproach2. Climate, Culture and Conquest: North, South and Central Mexico in the Pre-European and Contact PeriodEnvironmental Marginality and Society in the Conchos Basin, ChihuahuaGuanajuato and the Chichimec TerritoryPower and Political Growth in the Central Valley of Oaxaca3. Exploring the Anatomy of Vulnerability in Colonial MexicoIntroductionThe Tools of Conquest and ColonisationThe Emergence of Regional Colonial Political EconomiesClimate Variability and Vulnerability in Colonial Mexico: a Preview4. Responding to Crisis: Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity in Colonial MexicoIntroductionMoral Economic and Institutional Responses to Climate and Crisis in Colonial MexicoSpeculation and Scarcity: Capitalising on Climate KnowledgeTrade in Grains: Providing for the 'Engines' of the Colonial Political EconomyTribute, Food Aid and the Supernatural: Appealing to a Common Sense of Loss'Compadrazgo', Community Engagement and Public Works'Most Sensitive and Saddening Events': Flood Risk and Social Capital Response in Colonial Guanajuato'Great Floods' 'and 'Strong Winds': Damaging Events, Response and 'Non-Adaptation' in Colonial OaxacaResponding strategically: climate, consciousness and experimentation5. Negotiating and Litigating Water in Colonial MexicoIntroductionWater and Local 'everyday conflicts' in the Country and CityRegional Resistance: Drought, Disease and Rebellion in Northern MexicoVulnerability, Riots and Rebellions: Rare Events or 'Tipping Points'?6. Illusory Prosperity: Economic Growth and Subsistence Crisis in the Disastrous Eighteenth Century IntroductionDecline and Depression in Seventeenth-centuryMexicoEconomic Boom and Bust: Absolutism and Globalisation in Late Colonial Mexico'A Time of Calamity': a Synthesis of Climate and Crises in Late Colonial Mexico From Crisis to Insurrection: Vulnerability and Popular Unrest in the Early Nineteenth Century7. Regional, National and Global Dimensions of Vulnerability and Crisis in Colonial MexicoIntroductionProlonged Drought and the Conditions of Crisis in Late Colonial ChihuahuaDrought Risk and the Social Construction of Flooding in the BajioResilience and the Rare Event: Climate, Society and Human Choice in the Indigenous SouthCrises in Context and Historical 'DoubleExposure'Closing CommentsBibliographyIndex
- ISBN: 978-1-4051-4582-4
- Editorial: Blackwell
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 248
- Fecha Publicación: 01/01/2008
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés