Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

Monica L. Smith

1. Nature as Agent: Mass-Event, Incremental, and Biotic Perspectives

Monica L. Smith

2. Hurricanes as Agents of Cultural Change: Integrating Paleotempestology and the Archaeological Record

Matthew C. Peros, Jago Cooper, and Frank Oliva

3. Navigating the Scarcity and Abundance of Monsoonal Rainfall in South Asia

Kanika Kalra

4. Earthquakes and Agency in the Roman Mediterranean: Resilience and Transformation

Jordan Pickett

5. Fire as an Agentive Force, from Forest to Hearth to Forest Again

Monica L. Smith

6. Pathogens with Power: How Diseases Navigate Human Societies

Sara L. Juengst, Emilie Cobb, Dale L. Hutchinson, Karen Mohr Chávez, Sergio Chávez, and Stanislava Chávez

7. Vegetative Agency and Social Memory in Houselots of the Ancient Maya

Harper Dine, Traci Ardren, and Chelsea Fisher

8. Bird Behavior and Biology: The Agentive Role of Birds in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Katelyn J. Bishop

9. Rats, Bats, and Birds: The Role of Non-Human Ecosystem Engineers in Pre-European Polynesian Agriculture

Seth Quintus, Jennifer Huebert, Jillian A. Swift, and Kyungsoo Yoo

10. Animal Agents in the Human Environment

Steven Ammerman

11. Reindeer as a Toggle: Animal Agency in Domestication

Silvia Tomášková

12. The End of the World (Again)

John Robb

Index

Contributors