This book is not only a clearly written and highly informative textbook for anthropology students, but it is a book for anyone interested in people and places. It provides a glimpse of the vast diversity of relationships between human beings and their environment around the globe. It addresses the many challenges our ancestors faced in their quest for survival, and what cultural responses, adaptations, and innovations emerged as a result. And it offers an important introduction to the cultural ecology of the modern world. Each chapter provides concise definitions of key terms, concepts, and theoretical approaches relevant to the study of cultural ecology and anthropology in general. The book begins by explaining the different elements that comprise the interdisciplinary study of cultural ecology, and it then discusses the various systems humans have devised to obtain their food: hunting and gathering, agricultural systems, horticulture, pastoralism, and intensive food production. Each of these chapters is accompanied by in-depth case studies of representative cultures. The concluding chapter addresses what is perhaps the most significant topic of all, namely how cultural ecology relates to current issues of environmental deterioration and carelessness.
Nancy J. Turner
