Resilience and Human History: Multidisciplinary Approaches and Challenges for a Sustainable Future

The term "resilience" was originally used in psychology, but in current-day usage, it mainly refers to the "ability to recover from disaster"; however, the concept of resilience is still ambiguous. This book challenges readers to reconsider the concept of resilience comprehensively from diverse perspectives and to re-conceptualize it as an important framework applicable in various research fields. The book explores resilience by expanding the time and space scales to the maximum. On the time axis, it traces back to our human ancestors (and even to anthropoid apes) and follows the evolution of humans, the origin of agriculture, the rise and fall of ancient civilizations, and the present day. On the space axis, it discusses levels ranging from genetic; bacterial flora; individual, indigenous communities; and modern societies; to the global level. As such it expands the base for considering the problems facing modern society and selecting a future direction.