Scholar Commons

Today a mixed cultural and natural landscape characterizes the south San Francisco Bay Area. This is the legacy of over two hundred years of contact between indigenous and foreign peoples, plants, and animals. As each of the different peoples who inhabited this space interacted with the environment, they altered the landscape, reshaping it according to the values of their culture. The choices made by the earliest inhabitants led over time to subtle changes, while more recent settlers have caused more dramatic change. In either case, however, we must realize that the Santa Clara Valley has been undergoing human induced change for thousands of years. The Research Manuscript Series on the Cultural and Natural History of Santa Clara is intended to contribute to the unraveling of this long-term process.

Santa Clara University faces its sesquicentennial and the millennium with an eye toward educating a new generation sensitive to issues surrounding the transformation of our social and natural world. This education is predicated on the critical assessment of other points of view and lifeways. Undoubtedly, an appreciation of the creation of our complex environment and our multicultural world will enable us to better care for our globe.

The Series was born through the interaction of faculty and students in Anthropology/Sociology, Biology and History who sought to understand how and why humans have altered the landscape in the South Bay Area. It was believed that this crossing of disciplinary lines would benefit students and, in turn, the campus and larger community through the dissemination of their work. With this in mind, the title of the Series was left specifically general to encourage a broader consideration of our cultural and natural landscape.

© 1994-2009. All manuscript content is the property of the manuscript authors.