Nature and power : a study of the social construction of nature in Eurasia from the Stone Age to the Hellenistic times

"Human society comes in contact with the physical environment in two ways: Through economic appropriation of physical resources and through the symbolic appropriation of nature. The two ''ways'' interact via the various interpreters ofnature, who as they define nature create cognitive means for the appropriation of physical resources. Using the theory of social networks of power the thesis examines the above interplay of economic appropriation and symbolic manipulation of the physical environment from the Stone Age to the Hellenistic times in a series of civilisations in Eurasia..."