Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

This volume brings together a diverse set of new studies--archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic—that focus on agricultural intensification and hydraulic systems around the world. Fifteen chapters—written by many of the world's leading experts—combine extensive regional overviews of agricultural histories with in-depth case studies. In this volume are chapters on agriculture in the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, Oceania, Mesoamerica, and South America. A wide range of theoretical perspectives and approaches are used to provide a framework for agricultural land-use and water management in a variety of cultural and historical contexts. This book covers the co-evolutionary relationships among sociopolitical structure, agriculture, land-use, and water control. Agricultural Strategies is an invaluable resource for those engaged in ongoing debates about the role of intensification and agriculture in the past and present.