Synopses & Reviews
Where do we get our notions of social hierarchy and personal worth? What underlies our beliefs about the goals worth aiming for, the persons we hope to become? Elvin Hatch addresses these questions in his ethnography of a small New Zealand farming community, articulating the cultural system beneath the social hierarchy.
Hatch describes a cultural theory of social hierarchy that defines not only the local system of social rank, but personhood as well. Because people define respectability differently, a crucial part of Hatch's approach is to examine how these differences are worked out over time.
The concept of occupation is central to Hatch's analysis, since the work that people do provides the skeletal framework of the hierarchical order. He focuses in particular on sheep farming and compares his New Zealand community with one in California. Wealth and respectability are defined differently in the two places, with the result that California landholders perceive a social hierarchy different from the New Zealanders'. Thus the distinctive "shape" that characterizes the hierarchy among these New Zealand landholders and their conceptions of self reflect the distinctive cultural theory by which they live.
Synopsis
"Trees of the California Landscape combines in a single volume just about everything landscape design professionals or home gardeners need to know about California trees. This excellent reference book/field guide will be particularly welcomed by landscape architects, as it pulls together a range of information about trees currently scattered throughout a number of older reference works. The heart of the book is a compendium of trees and includes essential information about individual species. The supporting sections on taxonomy, climate, range of native forest types, applications and special use lists contain a wealth of useful information."Heath Schenker, Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, UC Davis
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-207) and index.
About the Author
Elvin Hatch is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of several books, including Culture and Morality: The Relativity of Values in Anthropology (1983).