Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
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Continuities
andChangein Tropical na nationstoday. Human occupationof the savannas reaches
back manymillenniain Africa,Asia, Australia,and theAmeri-
SavannaEnvironments cas, duringwhichtime diverseways of life evolved in these
environments; but todaypatternsof resourceuse are changing
rapidlyas establishedsystemsof pastoralismand cultivation
byDAVID R. HARRIS are beingmodifiedand replacedby commercialranchingand
Department of Geography, University CollegeLondon,Gower by large-scaleprojectsof agriculturaland industrialdevelop-
St., LondonWC1E 6BT, England.14 x 78 ment.Many of thesechangesare takingplace in nation-states
Between the equatorial rain forestsand the perenniallydry thatareexperiencing rapidpopulationgrowthand urbanization
desertsof the subtropicalhigh-pressure belts lie the world's while enduringpersistenthazards of droughtand endeKiic
"savanna lands." They occupyabout one-fourth of theworld's disease.Analysisofthecapacityof savannaecosystemsto sup-
land surface,supportvaried plant and animal communities, port morepeople and to sustainnew modes of land use is a
and encompassthe greatestnumberand diversityof human prerequisiteforsuccessfuldevelopment.
societieswithinthe tropics.Perhapsbecauseof theirgreateco- The conferencebroughttogethera groupwhoseexperience
logical and social diversity,they are seldom perceivedas a spannedthe tropicalcontinentsand whoseexpertisefellwithin
geographicalentity,and theyhave attractedless scholarlyat- thefieldsofarchaeology, anthropology,botany,economics,epi-
tentionthan eitherthe desertsor the rain forests.It was to demiology, geography, nutrition,
physiology,and zoology.The
help redressthis imbalancethat a Wenner-GrenFoundation firstquestionaddressed-and quicklydisposedof-by partici-
conferencewas held at Burg WartensteinAugust4-13, 1978, pantswas thedefinition ofsavannaenvironments. A necessarily
on the theme"Human Ecologyin Savanna Environments." arbitraryclimaticdefinition proposedby the organizerin his
The purposeof the conference was to examinein worldwide preconference paper was acceptedas settingbroadlimitswithin
comparativeperspectivethe ways in whichpast and present whichgradientsof environmental variationwere recognized.
humanpopulationshave adapted to and made use of tropical Thus theIntermediate Tropicalor SavannaZone can be defined
savanna environments.Comparative examination of this as thatpart of the tropicalworldthat experiencesa dryseason
themewould,it was hoped,yield improvedunderstanding of of2.5 to 7.5 months'duration.Its commonclimaticdenomina-
theecologicaland socioeconomic changestakingplace in savan- tor is the occurrenceof a winterdryseason that checksplant
394 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY