Located in a wide spectrum of current reseach and practice, from analyses of green ideology and imagery, enviromental law and policy, and local enviromental activism in the West to ethnographic studies of relationships between humans and their enviroments in hunter/gatherer societies, Enviromentalism: The View from Anthropology offers an original perspective on what is probably the best-known issue of the late twentieth century. Among the key issues discussed are the relationship between scientific knowledge and symbolism, the cultural construction of "hard" principles of law and policy, effects of state interests and bureaucracies on enviromental activism, the responses of indigenous peoples to industrial exploitation and their subsequent representation in enviromentalist discourse. The book also addresses current theoretical issues in anthropology relating to the globalisation of culture, the analytical value of dualism and the relationship between anthropology and advocacy.
Enviromentalism: The View from Anthropology will be particularly useful to all social scientists interested in enviromentalism and human ecology, to environmental policy-makers and to undergraduat lecturers and researchers in social anthropology, development studies and sociology.