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Interdisciplinary research combining Environmental and Human sciences shows a strong interest in assessing effects of past human activities on environments over the Quaternary period. On May 23, 2023, a conference organised by the French National Research Agency (Agence nationale de la recherche [ANR]) was held in Paris. The meeting was attended by 300 participants. It provided the opportunity to present a global synthesis (summarized in an ANR publication, Cahier thématique) of the projects funded by the Agency through the Plan d'action and France 2030 funding programs since its establishment in 2005. The meeting addressed the five key themes identified, highlighting projects that have benefited from a global funding of ca. 40 million euros. It started with a general presentation of the scientific context, which introduced the five thematic objectives, with an emphasis on the interdisciplinarity of the projects funded by the Agency as examples. Following these presentations, round tables facilitated discussion between the different stakeholders, i.e. researchers, members of the French Parliament and representatives of different French institutions. All participants underlined the key role of developing such interdisciplinary fundamental research focusing on past human-environment interactions to better conceive strategies for the preservation of present-day environments impacted by human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Land ownership norms are well documented and play a central role in social–ecological systems. Yet only recently has the spatial and temporal distribution of land ownership been examined using biogeographical and evolutionary approaches. We incorporate biogeographical and evolutionary modelling to test associations between land ownership and environmental, subsistence and cultural contact predictors. Location: Africa. Taxon: Bantu and Bantoid ethnolinguistic groups (73 societies). Methods: Based on ethnographies for 73 societies, we coded land ownership norms as none, group, kin or individual. We paired these data with language phylogenies, and measured phylogenetic and geographical signal and modelled alternative evolutionary trajectories using maximum likelihood methods. We tested the influence of environmental, subsistence and cultural predictors on spatial variation in land ownership, using a multi‐model inference approach based on logistic regression. Results: Bantu land ownership norms likely evolved on a unilinear trajectory (i.e. societies progress or regress along a series of ownership types), but not one requiring consistent increase in exclusivity (i.e. restrictions towards ownership by smaller groups) as suggested by prior theory. Our biogeographical analyses suggest land ownership is more likely where neighbours also own land and resource productivity is predictable. Reliance on agriculture has relatively small effect sizes and low importance in the model. Main Conclusions: We find support for multiple evolutionary pathways. Lack of resolution may be due to localized horizontal transfer of norms consistent with the influence of neighbours we find from biogeographical analyses. We cannot rule out other untested mechanisms. Although long‐standing theories propose links between subsistence practices and land ownership, our results suggest subsistence plays only a modest role. Our results also support resource defensibility theory (i.e. land ownership is more likely where environmental productivity is predictable). Overall, we demonstrate the value of combining analytical approaches from evolution and biogeography to test hypotheses on the spatial and temporal variation of human cultural traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To talk about life is to talk about cooperation. Its evolutionary origin, different levels of organisation, and current complexity are the result of cooperation between different biological entities. This is also the case with animal societies, including the most complex of them all, the human society. Our language and extraordinary culture, our cities and vast social networks, are the fruit of cooperation. In a world dominated by Darwinian competition, how has cooperation come to play such an important role? Social evolution, the study of the biological bases of cooperation, tackles this question. From the origin of the first cell and to the explosion of social life in animals, social evolution explains how and why cooperation has guided life on our planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We contend that the harvest of marine resources played a critical, but as yet underappreciated and poorly understood, role in global history. In a review of the field of marine environmental history and archaeology we conclude that while much progress has been made, especially in the last two decades, fundamental questions remain unanswered. In order to make full use of the rapid growth of Big Data and ongoing methodological breakthroughs there is a need for collaborative and comparative research. Such joint efforts on a global scale must be guided by a focus on common, simple yet challenging, questions. We propose a Human Oceans Past research agenda to call for multi- and trans-disciplinary archaeological, historical and palaeoenvironmental/palaeoecological research to investigate: (1) when and where marine exploitation was of significance to human society; (2) how selected major socio-economic, cultural, and environmental forces variously constrained and enabled marine exploitation; and (3) what were the consequences of marine resource exploitation for societal development. We contend that this agenda will lead to a fundamental revision in our understanding of the historical role of marine resources in the development of human societies.

The impact of environmental changes on the development of human societies in the Eurasian Steppe is not well understood over the Holocene timescale. In this study, we have reported the phytoliths, grain size, and weight loss on ignition for an aeolian soil profile in the Liao River Basin at the eastern margin of the Eurasian Steppe. The profiles spanned the middle and late Holocene based on AMS 14C dating. By employing the summed radiocarbon probability distribution of archaeological sites and kernel density analysis, the spatial and temporal distributions of human populations and settlements were investigated in order to analyze the rise and fall of ancient cultures. Our findings indicated that the environment in the Liao River Basin underwent three stages of change. From 6700 to 5400 cal yr BP, the climate was warm and humid. The climate suddenly became cold and dry from 5400 to 4900 cal yr BP. The climate fluctuated, with a general tendency towards cold and dry conditions, from 4900 cal yr BP to 1700 cal yr BP. In addition, human societies in the region underwent significant changes, with rapid agricultural development and population growth in the warm and humid environment of the Middle Neolithic (6700–5000 yr BP). However, during the Late Neolithic (5000–4000 yr BP), the living environment suddenly became cold and dry, which limited the development of human society and drastically reduced its population. Nevertheless, the resilience of human societies continued to increase, and in the Bronze Age (4000–2000 yr BP), even in an overall cold and dry living environment, human societies still developed and their population increased sharply. Changes in the East Asia Summer Monsoon were an important driver of cultural change, and our study emphasizes the complex human-environment interactions that shaped societal development on the Eurasian Steppe. • Use theSPD and spatial and temporal variations of archaeological sites as quantitative proxies for human activities. • Combining with existing archaeological researches, it is better to understand the human activities and the rise and fall of cultures. • Phytoliths is a more suitable approach for the reconstruction of grassland ecosystems than other proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Fela Anikulapo Kuti of Nigeria and Miriam Makeba of South Africa utilised their popular songs to communicate opposition against certain established political orders in their respective African societies. Popular songs have always been formidable instruments of political expression. They play serious roles in general socio-political engineering as well as have a great place in the expression of conflicts amongst classes in the society; especially given the Marxian position that history of all human societies is the history of class struggle. Taking popular songs generally as tools of political communication - that which can be used for electoral, endorsement, review, protest and other purposes; and qualitatively drawing a comparative analysis of selected songs of Fela and Makeba, the paper particularly asserts that indigenization and deforeignisation of popular songs are key to their effective use in communicating opposition to perceived political anomalies within a social formation, as could be seen in the cases of Fela and Makeba against colonial masters and apartheid lords during their times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the values of fish populations and fisheries has primarily focused on bio‐economic aspects; a more nuanced and multidimensional perspective is mostly neglected. Although a range of social aspects is increasingly being considered in fisheries research, there is still no clear understanding as to how to include these additional values within management policies nor is there a cogent appreciation of the major knowledge gaps that should be tackled by future research. This paper results from a workshop held during the 50th anniversary symposium of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles at the University of Exeter, UK, in July 2017. Here, we aim to highlight the current knowledge gaps on the values of fish populations and fisheries thus directing future research. To this end, we present eight questions that are deeply relevant to understanding the values of fish populations and fisheries. These can be applied to all habitats and fisheries, including freshwater, estuarine and marine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and spatial scale of prehistoric human landscape modifications in Amazonia are enduring questions. Original conceptions of the issues by archaeologists published more than 40 years ago posited little human influence because of putative environmental constraints. Empirical data accumulated more recently demonstrated dense, permanent settlements along major watercourses of the central and southern Amazon, and profound landscape alterations in seasonally flooded savanna regions of Bolivia. These results led some investigators to propose that most to all of Amazonia was heavily populated and modified before European arrival, and that prehistoric fires and forest clearing were of such a massive scale that post-Columbian reforestation was a significant contributor to decreasing atmospheric CO2 levels and the onset of the ‘Little Ice Age’. Recent data generated from investigations of soils sampled from underneath standing terra firme forests in parts of the western Amazon indicate ephemeral ancient human occupation and little vegetation disturbance there. These issues are central to ongoing discussions surrounding the classification and timing of the Anthropocene, because a geological epoch proposed on the basis of profound human alteration of environments and considerations of when during the Holocene it should begin, require robust paleo-environmental and archaeological data from major, critically important zones such as the Amazon Basin. This paper reviews debates and existing information on prehistoric human influences in Amazonia, provides new data from the western Amazon, and attempts to arrive at reasonable conclusions based on the available empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of simulation tools for reasoning about human societies formalizes their analysis and reduces the related costs, but it demands a high level of expertise in the design and programming of complex systems. This paper presents the SCAT framework aimed at bringing these tools closer to their end users, the researchers in social sciences. For this purpose, it adopts an approach with domain-specific languages based on the activity theory and the situation calculus. The Activity Theory is a paradigm from social sciences to analyze the behaviour of societies through activity systems, which are groups of tasks performed by actors in a social and historical context. SCAT uses the formalism of the Situation calculus to define an operational semantics for these systems. On this basis, SCAT provides a modelling language to describe interconnected activity systems, and an environment for the simulation of these systems and the verification of their properties. An example on human relations organizes this presentation of SCAT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Human societies accumulate a great deal of information about past events. People make reference to things that happened in time in different ways and record them in multiple media. We have studied the current use of this information by analysing the frequency of occurrence of numbers associated with years in the World Wide Web (WWW). We found a consistent scale-free reduction in the number of web pages referencing events occurred in increasingly older years. This was found for the entire WWW and separately for web pages written in 12 different languages. From year 2005 to 2006 the increase on the number of web pages associated to each year also decayed as a power-law from recent to old years. Such general pattern reveals that time elapsed to present is the best predictor of the interest or the amount of information on a particular year in the WWW. Moreover, the power-law increase from one year to the next shows that the scale-free shape of past in the WWW is dynamically maintained. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The term 'globalisation' was first used by social scientists to refer to the evolution of separate human societies into a single global society. Examples of this were ancient empires trading with each other and also the worldwide alliances, during World War I and World War II. By the 1980's, the term was commonly used for specifically economic globalisation. Now, it refers to worldwide trade linking economies together in such a way that they are all interdependent. Simply, it can be said that "Globalisation is the free movement of goods, services and people across the world in a seamless and integrated manner." The process of globalisation not only includes opening up of world trade, development of advanced means of communication, internationalisation of financial markets, growing importance of MNCs, population migrations and increased mobility of persons, goods, capital, data and ideas, but also infections, diseases and pollution. In present scenario, the term globalisation refers to the integration of world economies, through uninhibited trade and financial flows, and also through mutual exchange of technology and knowledge, etc. It contains free inter-country movement of labour as well. The new economic reform, popularly known as, Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG model) have made the Indian economy as fastest growing economy and globally competitive. In Indian context, this implies opening up the economy to foreign direct investment by providing facilities to foreign companies to invest in different fields of economic activity in India, removing constraints and obstacles to the entry of MNCs in India, allowing Indian companies to enter into foreign collaborations and also encouraging them to set up joint ventures abroad. As a development paradigm globalisation is now widely accepted in India. It has changed many fiscal, monetary, trade and industrial practices in India. Their changes reflect the Indian efforts to globalise its economy to achieve higher growth rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxonomies have played a much more important role in the development of the sciences than is generally recognized by sociologists. They have provided both a foundation for the formulation of basic theory and a spur to innovative research. This paper traces the development from ancient times to the present of efforts to create a taxonomy of human societies, the most basic and inclusive of all social systems. It concludes with a discussion of the question of whether there are compelling reasons for preferring any one of the various taxonomies that have been devised. Four principles for evaluating taxonomies are proposed and applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reconstruct the Holocene vegetation, climate, and archaeological history for drylands of northwestern Patagonia, Argentina, based on multiproxy analysis (plant macrofossil, pollen, and parasites) of rodent middens integrated with a database of 14C dates associated with human occupations. The local scale corresponds to the Huenul paleoecological and archaeological locality, emplaced in north-western Patagonia (Neuquén Province, Argentina). The rodent midden record from the Huenul series reflects subtle vegetation changes driven by climatic variability at millennial timescale. Drier than present environmental conditions prevailed during the early Holocene (10,500–9400 cal yr BP), peaking during the mid-Holocene (9200–5500 cal yr BP), when wetter than present conditions established during the late Holocene (4400–2500 cal yr BP). These environmental and climatic dynamics agree with other paleoclimatic records from northern Patagonia, suggesting the winter precipitation dynamics related to the Southern Westerlies as a common driver. The diachronic distribution of anthropogenic radiocarbon dates from the western area of the South American Arid Diagonal between 32°–40°S conforms to a fitted exponential model of steady background population growth, not suggesting significant demographic changes that may have been the result of the impact of climate change. This record indicates that these human populations coped successfully with aridity, particularly during the mid-Holocene. These findings reinforce the need to integrate multi-scalar interdisciplinary analyses to assess the impact of climate change in human societies. • The SAAD (36°S) underwent environmental changes driven by precipitation variability. • Dry conditions prevailed during the early Holocene peaking at the mid Holocene. • Rodent and human occupancies were mutually exclusive in alternating discrete phases. • The fluctuations in the observed SPD could not be attributed to any demographic event. • Significant regional demographic changes may not have been a result of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]