Ecology, Economy, and Upland Landscapes: Socio-Ecological Dynamics in the Alps during the Transition to Modernity

Francesco Carrer,Florence Mocci,Kevin Walsh

doi:10.1007/s10745-020-00130-y

Abstract

Human interaction with mountain environments is generally perceived as an adaptation of local communities to the constraining ecological and morphological characteristics of their territory, a preconception challenged by many historians and ecologists yet still largely accepted for seasonally exploited uplands. Traditional upland seasonal practices are considered timeless and immutable as the mountain landscapes shaped by such practices. We combine the methodologies of landscape archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and historical ecology in order to examine the validity of this assumption. Our analysis of two case studies from the French and Italian Alps between the eighteenth and the twenty-first century shows that socioeconomic dynamics affect the resilience of local montane ecosystems and the historical character of upland landscapes, and reveals that historical social, economic, and ecological driving forces contributed to upland landscape change, so that the sustainability of ‘traditional’ mountain land-use should not be presumed.

Highlights

The assessment of human-environment interaction in mountainous zones of Europe has long been reduced to simplistic discussions centred on the notion of adaptation of human communities to the constraining morphological and environmental characteristics of their territory (Guichonnet 1980)
In order to address changes that occurred in the valley during the twentieth century, we interviewed two Archaeological and palaeoecological data have been collected from the upland landscapes and environments of Freissinières over the last two decades
The detailed analysis of the history of upland landscapes in two sectors of the Western Alps shows how socioeconomic idiosyncrasies affected the evolution of seasonally exploited landscapes

Summary

Introduction

The assessment of human-environment interaction in mountainous zones of Europe has long been reduced to simplistic discussions centred on the notion of adaptation of human communities to the constraining morphological and environmental characteristics of their territory (Guichonnet 1980). These scholars (e.g., (Rosenberg 1988; Viazzo 1989)) suggested that during the historic period, Alpine communities were not isolated entities, but were subject to the same social, economic, and political processes as rural communities in the plains, over the last three centuries when growing intensity of land exploitation along with increasing expansion of markets were significantly changing rural communities, as was evident in. Midaltitude (1200–1800 m) landscapes were shaped over time by human activities such as woodland clearance for grazing and hay-making, tree exploitation associated with mining, tree-crops such as chestnut, or the modification of the vegetative composition of forested areas through the construction of structures or infrastructures, including pathways and terraces (e.g., (Acovitsioti-Hameau 2015))

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