Synopses & Reviews
The Environment in Anthropology presents ecology and current environmental studies from an anthropological point of view. From the classics to the most current scholarship, this book connects the theory and practice in environment and anthropology, giving readers a strong intellectual foundation as well as offering practical tools for solving environmental problems.
Haenn and Wilk pose the most urgent questions of environmental protection: How are environmental problems mediated by cultural values? What are the environmental effects of urbanization? When do environmentalists get in conflict with indigenous peoples? How can we assess the impact of “environmentally correct” businesses such as the Body Shop? They also cover the fundamental topics of population growth, large scale development, biodiversity conservation, sustainable environmental management, indigenous groups, consumption, and globalization.
Balancing landmark essays with cutting-edge scholarship, bridging theory and practice, and offering suggestions for further reading and new directions for research, The Environment in Anthropology is the ideal introduction to a burgeoning field.
Contributors include: J. Peter Brosius, Billie DeWalt, Arturo Escobar, Akhil Gupta, Caren Kaplan, Conrad Kottak, David Maybury-Lewis, B.J. McCay, Kay Milton, Virginia Nazarea, Robert Netting, Vandana Shiva, Julian Steward, and Susan C. Stonich.
Review
“[A] solid demonstration of the contributions of anthropology to understanding and developing solutions to environmental problems.”
-Environmental Conservation,
Synopsis
In some senses, Albania is a living museum of the past. Originally a small herding community in the most inaccessible reaches of the Balkans, the presence of Albanians in southeastern Europe has been documented for over a thousand years.
Albanian traditional folk culture, which evolved over centuries of relative isolation, is surprisingly rich. Yet despite recent events this culture remains little known to the Western world. Due to the lasting effects of a half century of Stalinist dictatorship, very few individuals even in Albania know much about their own popular traditions.
The Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology, and Folk Culture makes available for the first time a wealth of knowledge about Albanian popular belief and folk customs. Alphabetical entries shed light on blood feuding, figures of Albanian mythology, religious beliefs, communities, and sects, calendar feasts and rituals, and popular superstitions, as well as birth, marriage, and funeral customs, and sexual mores. This unique volume will stand as the standard reference work on the subject for years to come.
About the Author
Nora Haenn is assistant professor of anthropology at Arizona State University. She is author of
Fields of Power, Forests of Discontent: Culture, Conservation, and the State in Mexico.
Richard Wilk is professor of anthropology and gender studies at Indiana University and the author of Economics and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology.