Sustainable natural resource use and management is widely proposed as the solution to our current planetary ecological crises. However, there are multiple pathways to sustainability: consume fewer resources or modify the environment to be more productive. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in 17th century New England provide an informative case study of the historical ecology of sustainable and unsustainable natural resource use as the species was ostensibly used sustainably by Native peoples for millennia but hunted nearly to extinction soon after European colonization. Zooarchaeological analyses of white-tailed deer remains from two sites in the lower Connecticut River Valley suggest that deer abundance in this locality declined in the 17th century due to increased hunting pressure consistent with commodification of the species within a novel mercantile capitalist economy. Depression of this deer population in the 17th century—at a time of general human population decline—appears to have been driven by capitalist market forces that increased demand for deerskin clothing for purposes of social signaling. These results illustrate the importance of addressing the harms of commodification when promoting sustainable natural resource use and management.

中文翻译：

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17 世纪新英格兰南部白尾鹿 （Odocoileus virginianus） 的商品化


可持续的自然资源利用和管理被广泛提议作为解决我们当前地球生态危机的解决方案。然而，实现可持续发展有多种途径：消耗更少的资源或改变环境以提高生产力。17 世纪新英格兰的白尾鹿 （Odocoileus virginianus） 为可持续和不可持续自然资源利用的历史生态学提供了一个翔实的案例研究，因为该物种表面上被土著人民可持续地利用了数千年，但在欧洲殖民后不久就被猎杀几乎灭绝。对康涅狄格河下游河谷两个地点的白尾鹿遗骸的动物考古学分析表明，由于狩猎压力增加，该地区的鹿数量在 17 世纪有所下降，这与新型商业资本主义经济中该物种的商品化相一致。在 17 世纪，在人类人口普遍下降的时期，这种鹿群的萧条似乎是由资本主义市场力量驱动的，这些力量增加了对鹿皮服装的需求，以达到社会信号的目的。这些结果表明，在促进可持续自然资源的使用和管理时，解决商品化危害的重要性。