The White Horse Press Full citation: Myllyntaus, Timo ed. Thinking Through the Environment: Green Approaches to Global History. Cambridge: The White Horse Press, 2011. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/3497. Rights: All rights reserved. © The White Horse Press 2011. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism or review, no part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, including photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the publishers. For further information please see http://www.whpress.co.uk. Thinking through the Environment Thinking through the Environment Green Approaches to Global History Edited by Timo Myllyntaus Editorial Board Pertti Grönholm Laura Hollsten Jaro Julkunen Aino Laine Timo Myllyntaus, chair The White Horse Press Copyright © 2011 The White Horse Press, 10 High Street, Knapwell, Cambridge, CB23 4NR, UK Set in 10 point Adobe Garamond Pro Printed by Lightning Source All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism or review, no part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, including photocopy- ing or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system. The cover illustration represents the European lowland bison. It was published as a lithograph in the 14th edition of Brockhaus’ Konversations-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1892–1897). British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-874267-62-1 (HB) Contents List of Illustrations and Tables. .viii Acknowledgements. .ix Biographical Sketches. xii Preface Methods in Environmental History Timo Myllyntaus . 1 Part I. ApproachIng the envIronment of the Past Chapter 1 Interdisciplinarity as Disciplinary Co-operation: A Plea for the Future of Environmental History Fiona Watson. 17 Chapter 2 Living in Nature: Biography and Environmental History Donald Worster. 28 Chapter 3 The Nazis and the Environment – a Relevant Topic? Frank Uekötter. 40 Part II. cultural PercePtIons of landscaPes Chapter 4 The Culture of Space: Temporal Precincts of a Vernacular Architecture in the Chittagong Hills Dilshad Rahat Ara . 63 Chapter 5 Perceptions of Place and Deep Time in the Australian Desert: Using Art in Environmental History: Libby Robin. 81 Chapter 6 Desertification – A Significant Problem? Diverse Environmental Literacy in the North Kordofan Area in Sudan Anu Eskonheimo. 100 vi Chapter 7 Thinking Through Memoryscapes: Symbolic Environmental Potency on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania Timothy Clack . 115 Chapter 8 Oral History and Individual Environmental Experiences Leena Rossi. 135 Part III. IndIgenous PeoPles and the Pressures of modernIsatIon Chapter 9 Ancestors’ Wisdom or Desktop Reindeer Management? The Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Contemporary Reindeer Herding Helena Ruotsala. 159 Chapter 10 Identity Politics and Alliance Building between the Sami Delegation and Conservationists in the Kessi Forest Dispute Jukka Nyyssönen. 179 Part Iv. managIng flood catastroPhes Chapter 11 Reconstruction and Analysis of the Flood Catastrophe along the River Neckar (South-West Germany) in October 1824 Jochen Seidel, Paul Dostal, Katrin Bürger, Florian Imbery and Mariano Barriendos . 201 Chapter 12 Times of Flood – Times of Favour. Disaster Management and the Social Response to Catastrophic Floods: the Example of Saxony (1784–1845) Guido Poliwoda. 218 Part v. remouldIng Rivers, reshaping socIetIes Chapter 13 From Natural to Modified Rivers and Back? Timber Floating in Northern Sweden in 1850–1980 and the Use of Historical Knowledge in Today’s Ecological Stream Restoration Erik Törnlund . 243 vii Chapter 14 To Act or Not to Act: Water Problems in North-East Hungary after 1945 Viktor Pál. 268 Index . 289 viii List of Illustrations and Tables Chapter 2 Figure 1. American explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell in his mid-thirties. 32 Figure 2. Scottish-American nature writer and early advocate of preservation of wilderness, John Muir, at the age of 34 in 1872 . 34 Chapter 4 Figure 1. Mru settlement, Bandarban, Winter 2003. 71 Figure 2. A Mru stilt dwelling, showing the gable end of the kim-tom and the char. Bandarban, 2003 . 72 Figure 3. Different activities carried out in the public space (kim-tom), by day and night . 74 Figure 4. Movement through life-cycle changes and physical domains in a Mru dwelling. 77 Chapter 5 Figure 1. Puritjarra rock shelter: a key base for Aboriginal people with mobile lifestyles in remote central Australia . 83 Figure 2. Mike Smith’s 1986 dig site at Puritjarra. 87 Figure 3. Mike Smith (archaeologist), Guy Fitzhardinge (pastoralist and conservationist) and Libby Robin (historian) read local maps together 88 Figure 4. Location of Cleland Hills . 89 Figure 5. Mandy Martin working in the Central Australian landscape. 91 Figure 6. Mandy Martin and Mike Smith painting together at Puritjarra Rock Shelter, May 2004 . 93 Figure 7. Underpainting in situ for work that became Mandy Martin and Libby Robin’s ‘Desert Stepping Stones’. 93 Figure 8. Mike Smith and Mandy Martin survey the day’s work at sunset . 95 ix Chapter 6 Figure 1. Map of Sudan with the study area. 101 Chapter 7 Figure 1. Map showing the Kilimanjaro Region. 117 Figure 2. Photograph of Kibo from a position in the Maharo region of Uchagga . 123 Table 1. Orientation of local churches in the study areas . 130 Chapter 8 Figure 1. ‘Arpinmäki’ or ‘Karttunen’s bookstore’. 142 Figure 2. ‘The Orthodox Church’. 145 Figure 3. ‘The Water Tower’. 149 Chapter 9 Figure 1. Children follow and learn from their parents in reindeer herding. 160 Figure 2. The fjelds of Pallastunturi in Finnish Lapland are a traditional area for reindeer herding . 174 Chapter 11 Figure 1. Map of the study area and the Neckar catchment . 202 Figure 2. An excerpt from the meteorological observations of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger . 204 Figure 3. An excerpt from the district council protocols of Esslingen in 1824. 207 Figure 4. A map showing the reconstructed sea-level pressure and circulation pattern over Europe for 26 October 1824. 209 Figure 5. The reconstructed precipitation pattern of the 36-hour rainfall for 28–29 October 1824 in the Neckar catchment and adjacent areas . 211 Figure 6. Flood Marks in the City of Heidelberg . 212 Figure 7. Historical document from Öhringen with water levels of the River Kocher from the 1824 flood event. 213 x Chapter 12 Figure 1. The flooded central railway station in Dresden, 2002 . 219 Figure 2. Severe floods of the Elbe River in Dresden, 1501–2002 . 220 Figure 3. The first public announcement on the location of signal cannon along the Elbe was published in 1826. 231 Figure 4. High-water chart for Dresden, 1836. 233 Figure 5. Collapse of the crucifix column on 31 March 1845. 236 Chapter 13 Figure 1. Floatways in Sweden, 1907. 249 Figure 2. Practices of timber floating . 251 Figure 3. Timber floating in a smaller tributary around the year 1950 . 251 Table 1. Floatway use and its impact in Sweden in different periods, 1800–1980. 252 Figure 4. Examples of floatway constructions . 254–5 Figure 5. Basic data and map showing the Vindel and Pite rivers . 256 Figure 6. Floatway structures and the transformation of Bergvattenforsen in Bjurbäcken, 1850–1950. 258 Chapter 14 Figure 1. Map of Hungary. 270 Table 1. Milestones of the Miskolc City Water and Waste Water Works, from the 1810s to the Present Day. 272 Figure 2. The river Sajó near Miskolc. 274 Figure 3. Housing projects in Miskolc. 277 Figure 4. Closed down steelworks in Miskolc. 283 Figure 5. ‘In harmony with nature’ — the slogan for Hungarian chemical factory BorsodChem (ex-BVK) . 284 xi Acknowledgements Everyone has experience of being present in the environment and interacting with it. Personal experiences also help a researcher imagine and enter into the milieux of historical events and development trends. However, being with the environment is just a basic step. Being able to think history through the environment requires much more: profound knowledge of the human–environment relationship and dedication to applying this expertise to historical research. Environmental histori- ans have developed various approaches to tackle this issue. To become acquainted and communicate with scholars who have elaborated new ways of comprehending interactions with the environment of the past has been a great expedition. The path from idea to final product is generally long and this book is no exception. It has gone through a complex process of gestation. The volume contains a selection of articles made from numerous submissions received; we are thank- ful for all of these. Manuscripts were chosen and reviewed by the editorial board, comprising Pertti Grönholm, Laura Hollsten, Jaro Julkunen, Aino Laine and Timo Myllyntaus. On the basis of comments made at this stage, some authors thoroughly revised their papers and considerably deepened their analyses. The editorial board has been very pleased with the cooperation of the authors. We are grateful to acknowledge the financial support for international re- search in environmental history provided by the Academy of Finland, the Ministry of the Environment, the Nessling Foundation, the Oskar Öflund Foundation, the Letterstedtska Society, the Åbo Akademi Foundation, the City of Turku, the Port of Turku, the Turku Historical Society, the newspaper Turun Sanomat and the Turku University Foundation. All associated with producing this collection fervently trust that it will make constructive contributions to discussion of the past and future of our environment. Timo Myllyntaus Turku, January 2011 xii Biographical Sketches dilshad rahat ara received her PhD in architecture in 2006 from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is currently assistant professor at the Department of Architectural Engineering of The United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain. She has also been a practising architect in Bangladesh.