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OverviewHow can cultural forms motivate people to care about their environment? While important scientific data about ecosystems is mushrooming, E. N. Anderson argues in this powerful new book that putting effective conservation into practice depends primarily on social solidarity and emotional factors. Marshaling decades of research on cultures across several continents, he shows how societies have been more or less successful in sustainably managing their environments based on collective engagements such as religion, art, song, myth, and story. This provocative and deeply felt book by a leading writer and scholar in human ecology and anthropology will be read and debated widely for years to come. Full Product DetailsAuthor: E N AndersonPublisher: Left Coast Press Inc Imprint: Left Coast Press Inc Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.612kg ISBN: 9781611329582ISBN 10: 1611329582 Pages: 305 Publication Date: 01 March 2014 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments, Part I Representation, Part II Areas: Particular Cultures, Part III Broader Regions, References, Index, About the AuthorReviewsGene Anderson has been one of the best and most consistent observers of the relationships between human societies and local ecologies for the better part of the past six decades. In Caring for Place, Anderson once again provides us with a kaleidoscope look at how cultures around the world are interrelated with their environments. The amount of ethnographic and historical material provided is impressive, with particular attention paid to the cultures of China, the Yucatec Maya, and Medieval Ireland. The truism that ideology and emotion are central to any human-in-environment interaction is one that is too often overlooked by environmental researchers. This book shows us definitively that if we are going to transition to sustainable societies, which we must, caring for our place is how to start. --James R. Veteto, University of North Texas This is an awesome distillation and synthesis of decades of teaching and research by a most prominent ecological anthropologist. Anderson (emer., University of California, Riverside) grounds the book in his fieldwork in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Central America, California, and the Northwest Coast. Firsthand information is integrated with material from an extensive literature. ... Anderson's primary thesis is that beliefs and emotions, as well as knowledge and reason, can be critical in traditional land and resource management, often motivating and facilitating sustainability and conservation, although not always. Nature has intrinsic value, and people tend to be fascinated with its beauty, which may be reflected in their arts. Valuing simplicity, efficiency, diversity, and solidarity are keys to sustainability. The rich abundance of sound knowledge and deep wisdon here should be read as widely as possible. Summing Up: Essential. L.E. Sponsel, emeritus, University of Hawai'i Anderson is deeply concerned with inadequate responses to ongoing global environmental degradation. Accordingly, he offers cases of traditional societies that survived over long time periods without destroying their environments. His focus is on ways humans think about plants, animals, and landscapes because of his conviction that stories about them are what make us care about their continued existence, rather than statistics about their plight. The goal is to learn lessons applicable for contemporary problems by observing ways that traditional people developed strategies to sustain environmental services and found ways to motivate others to do the same. - Susan Stevens Hummel, Agric Hum Values Author InformationE. N. Anderson is Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, at the University of California, Riverside. He has done research on ethnobiology, cultural ecology, political ecology and medical anthropology in several areas, especially Hong Kong, British Columbia, California and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. His books include The Food of China (Yale University Press, 1988), Ecologies of the Heart (Oxford University Press, 1996), Political Ecology of a Yucatec Maya Community (University Press of Arizona Press, 2005) and The Pursuit of Ecotopia (Praeger, 2010). In 2013 he received the Distinguished Ethnobiology Award from the Society for Ethnobiology. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |