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A narration of the mutually mortal historical contest between humans and nature in Latin America. Covering a period that begins with Amerindian civilizations and concludes in the region's present urban agglomerations, the work offers an original synthesis of the current scholarship on Latin America's environmental history and argues that tropical nature played a central role in shaping the region's historical development. Human attitudes, populations, and appetites, from Aztec cannibalism to more contemporary forms of conspicuous consumption, figure prominently in the story. However, characters such as hookworms, whales, hurricanes, bananas, dirt, butterflies, guano, and fungi make more than cameo appearances. Recent scholarship has overturned many of our egocentric assumptions about humanity's role in history. Seeing Latin America's environmental past from the perspective of many centuries illustrates that human civilizations, ancient and modern, have been simultaneously more powerful and more vulnerable than previously thought.

Human ecology --- Nature --- Rain forest ecology --- Rain forest conservation --- Forest management --- Environmental degradation --- History --- Effect of human beings on --- Latin America --- Environmental conditions --- History of Latin America --- anno 1200-1799 --- anno 1800-1999 --- Human ecology - Latin America - History --- Nature - Effect of human beings on - Latin America - History --- Rain forest ecology - Latin America - History --- Rain forest conservation - Latin America - History --- Forest management - Latin America - History --- Environmental degradation - Latin America - History --- Latin America - Environmental conditions - History --- History. --- Ecology --- Environment, Human --- Human beings --- Human environment --- Ecological engineering --- Human geography --- Forest conservation --- Equatorial forest ecology --- Rain forests --- Tropical rain forest ecology --- Forest ecology --- Forest administration --- Forest plants --- Forest resource administration --- Forest resource management --- Forest stewardship --- Forest vegetation management --- Forestry management --- Forests and forestry --- Stewardship, Forest --- Vegetation management, Forest --- Ecosystem management --- Natural resources --- Degradation, Environmental --- Destruction, Environmental --- Deterioration, Environmental --- Environmental destruction --- Environmental deterioration --- Natural disasters --- Environmental quality --- Social aspects --- Effect of environment on --- Management --- Administration --- Control --- Asociación Latinoamericana de Libre Comercio countries --- Neotropical region --- Neotropics --- New World tropics --- Spanish America