Product Description

Environmental Anthropology: A Reader is a collection of historically significant readings, dating from early in the twentieth century up to the present, on the cross–cultural study of relations between people and their environment.

• Provides the historical perspective that is typically missing from recent work in environmental anthropology
• Includes an extensive intellectual history and commentary by the volume’s editors
• Offers a unique perspective on current interest in cross–cultural environmental relations
• Divided into five thematic sections: (1) the nature/culture divide; (2) relationship between environment and social organization; (3) methodological debates and innovations; (4) politics and practice; and (5) epistemological issues of environmental anthropology
• Organized into a series of paired papers, which ‘speak’ to each other, designed to encourage readers to make connections that they might not customarily make

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #492396 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 504 pages

Review
“This reader provides an excellent sampling of classic anthropological writings on human ecology and environments. A truly comprehensive survey of the field and a range of genuine classics … articles that deserve their wide reputation. In comparison with other readers on this general topic, the present one focuses on truly influential, widely cited works and is more balanced and comprehensive. Very highly recommended for courses in environmental or ecological anthropology, conservation biology, and human ecology. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.”
Choice, November 2008

“Distinguished environmental anthropologists Michael Dove and Carol Carpenter provide a great service for both professional colleagues and students in this specialization through a wonderful benchmark sampling of articles from its history with an emphasis on its formative and mature development during the decades of the 1950s through the 1990s. The progression of different phases and approaches in the history of environmental anthropology is exceedingly well illustrated through the five thematic parts of this anthology. The chapters are placed in context through an extensive, informative, and insightful introduction. This anthology goes a long way toward filling one of the previously empty niches among the textbooks available for this specialization and nicely complements rather than competes with them. It is also indispensable as a reference work.”
Leslie E. Sponsel, Director, Ecological Anthropology Program, University of Hawaii

From the Back Cover
Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader is a collection of historically significant readings, dating from early in the twentieth century up to the present, on the cross–cultural study of relations between people and their environment. Like the focus of many environmental movements, much recent work in ecological anthropology has been crisis–driven, with a focus on the here and now. Often missing from this work is a wider perspective–including the context in which the research itself is being done. Current work on the human dimensions of deforestation or global climate change, for example, can be informed and strengthened by an understanding of the century–old intellectual lineage of the underlying issues.

Divided into five thematic sections, this collection provides rare insight into the evolution of environmental anthropology specifically and environmental studies more generally. These selections, along with extensive commentary by the volume’s editors, offer a unique perspective on current interest in cross–cultural environmental relations.

About the Author
Michael R. Dove is Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology, Professor of Anthropology, Curator of Anthropology at the Peabody Museum, and Coordinator of the joint doctoral program in anthropology and environmental studies, Yale University. He is the author of numerous books and papers on the anthropology of conservation and development. His most recent book is Conserving Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia (co–edited with P. Sajise and A. Doolittle, 2005).

Carol Carpenter is Senior Lecturer in Social Ecology and Anthropology, Yale University. Her teaching and research focus on theories of social ecology; social aspects of sustainable development and conservation; and gender in agrarian and ecological systems.