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Natural disasters frequently affected medieval populations. This book explores what happened when meteorological hazards struck how medieval communities reacted and what steps they took to protect themselves against future risks. Through archaeological and historical sources of evidence, the diverse impacts unleashed by disasters on medieval society are traced to provide a well-rounded understanding of catastrophes in the medieval past.

Anthropological contributions to the study of infectious disease and to the study of actual infectious disease eradication programmes have rarely been collected in one volume. In the era of AIDS and the global resurgance of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, there is widespread interest and concern about the cultural, ecological and political factors that are directly related to the increased prevalence of infectious disease. In this book, the authors have assembled the growing scholarship in one volume. Chapters explore the coevolution of genes and cultural traits; the cult

1. Spatial representation and spatial interaction: an overview -- 1.1. Introduction -- 1.2. The multi-criteria aggregation problem -- 1.3. The multi-level specification problem -- I: Multi-Criteria Aggregation Problems -- 2. Sequential treatment of the multi-criteria aggregation problem: a case study of zoning system design -- 3. An empirical investigation of the use of Broadbent's rule in spatial system design -- 4. A simplistic approach to the redistricting problem -- 5. An optimal zoning approach to the study of spatially aggregated data -- 6. Speculations on an information theoretic approach to spatial representation -- II: Multi-Level Specification Problems -- 7. The specification of multi-level systems for spatial analysis -- 8. Hierarchical trip distribution models and the design of accounting systems -- 9. Some suggestions for future research -- References.

"Waiting for the End of the World? addresses the archaeological, architectural, historical, and geological evidence for natural disasters in the Middle Ages between the 11th and 16th centuries. This volume adopts a fresh interdisciplinary approach to explore the many ways in which environmental hazards affected European populations and, in turn, how medieval communities coped and responded to short- and long-term consequences. Three sections, which focus on geotectonic hazards (Part I), severe storms and hydrological hazards (Part II) and biophysical hazards (Part III), draw together 18 papers of the latest research while additional detail is provided in a catalogue of the 20 most significant disasters to have affected Europe during the period. These include earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, storms, floods and outbreaks of infectious diseases. Spanning Europe from the British Isles to Italy and from the Canary Islands to Cyprus, these contributions will be of interest to earth scientists, geographers, historians, sociologists, anthropologists and climatologists but are also relevant to students and non-specialist readers interested in medieval archaeology and history as well as those studying human geography and disaster studies. Despite a different set of beliefs relating to the natural world and protection against environmental hazards, the evidence suggests that medieval communities frequently adopted a surprisingly 'modern', well-informed and practically-minded outlook"--