An aerial photo of Burgundy, France, shows fields and houses trimmed in neat hedgerows. Beside the houses are patchworks of green squares. If you zoomed in closer, the green would turn to gardens. In this rural region, most people grow dozens of different vegetables, plus fruit trees, flowers, and herbs. For twenty years, anthropologists Carole Crumley, Scott Madry, and others have focused closely on southern Burgundy, collecting details about people and land. Then, like the aerial photo, they pull back. They're looking for patterns—habits of people and animals that have caused crops to flourish, soil to erode, trees to die. By mapping these patterns from the past, they say, we can plan how to preserve the environment in the future. continue story |