Colonial New England
This concept map explores the effects of European colonization on the land, ecologies, and peoples of New England during the 17th and 18th centuries. The shift from native communities to European hegemony in the Northeast had profound and unanticipated implications on both biotic and abiotic features in the landscape.
Scroll below the map for additional information and a glossary of key concepts.
This diagram approaches the shift from Pre-Colonial to Colonial Civilization through “systems thinking.” That is, the shift from a sustainable life system to an unsustainable life system. The Pre-Colonial System is depicted by a tree, wheres the Colonial System is depicted by a growth and consumption curve. The movement from one system to another follows the passage of time (x axis). The values, interactions, and resulting properties that comprise each system build on top of one another in the upwards direction (y axis).
Glossary
Usufruct Rights– The right to benefit from a parcel of land
Fee Simple Land Ownership– Absolute ownership of a parcel of land, or “property”
Deontology– Ethics based on “duty” or moral underpinnings for an action
Teleology– Ethics based on the “ends” rather than the “means”
Rights Based Ethics- Ethics based on the understanding that beings have innate rights
Presentism- Concern only with the present state of the world
Externality– An unanticipated consequence of an action that affects a third or multiple other parties
Panarchy– A framework to understand how different scale systems function together to produce a “system of systems.” The idea that change can come from any direction.
Resilience– The ability to maintain core function in the midst of a disturbance – to absorb and adapt to disturbance
Social Ecological System– A system that includes both humans and nature and their effects on one another
