By examining how small communities have dealt with forces of change and have sought to maintain themselves over time, this book offers pointers and lessons for conservation practices at all levels of society.
"Stewart and Strathern are giants in their field. In this engaging work, they bring a much-needed anthropological approach to the modern sustainability movement, drawing on case studies from places as diverse as Papua New Guinea and Scotland to argue that ecosystem health and human wellbeing are intrinsically connected." - Jeremy L. Caradonna, University of Victoria, Canada
"Slightly more than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas and 68% is projected to live in cities by 2050. Increasingly we become isolated from the natural environments that provide our food and energy and we struggle to understand how to sustain the natural systems that support us. This book by two anthropologists with extensive fieldwork experience in Melanesia, examines how small scale pre-capitalist societies relate to their natural environments through ritual and an appreciation of ecosystem relationships, in order to seek possible solutions to our own pressing problems of environmental sustainability and global warming." - Bryant Allen, Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Pacific Affairs, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
"Humanity is faced with challenges of climate change, pollution, and species extinction while striving to feed a growing population and procure sufficient energy to sustain life and fuel development. Stewart and Strathern draw on their extensive ethnographic research in diverse regions of the globe-New Guinea, Scotland, and Taiwan-to offer valuable insight into this complex and nuanced problem." - Richard Feinberg, Professor Emeritus, Kent State University, USA
