Human impacts on Amazonia : the role of traditional ecological knowledge in conservation and development

Book

Human impacts on Amazonia : the role of traditional ecological knowledge in conservation and development / edited by Darrell Addison Posey and Michael J. Balick.

Posey, Darrell Addison, 1947- (Added Author). Balick, Michael J., 1952- (Added Author).

Summary:

Annotation Of late, religion seems to be everywhere, suffusing U.S. politics and popular culture and acting as both a unifying and a divisive force. This collection of manifestos, Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimonies, speeches, articles, book excerpts, pastoral letters, interviews, song lyrics, memoirs, and poems reflects the vitality, diversity, and changing nature of religious belief and practice in American public and private life over the last half century. Encompassing a range of perspectives, this book illustrates the ways in which individuals from all along the religious and political spectrum have engaged religion and viewed it as a crucial aspect of society. The anthology begins with documents that reflect the close relationship of religion, especially mainline Protestantism, to essential ideas undergirding Cold War America. Covering both the center and the margins of American religious life, this volume devotes extended attention to how issues of politics, race, gender, and sexuality have influenced the religious mainstream. A series of documents reflects the role of religion and theology in the civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements as well as in conservative responses. Issues regarding religion and contemporary American culture are explored in documents about the rise of the evangelical movement and the religious right; the impact of "new" (post-1965) immigrant communities on the religious landscape; the popularity of alternative, New Age, and non-Western beliefs; and the relationship between religion and popular culture.The editors conclude with selections exploring major themes of American religious life at the millennium, including both conservative and New Age millennialism, as well as excerpts that speculate on the future of religion in the United States. The documents are grouped by theme into nine chapters and arranged chronologically therein. Each chapter features an extensive introduction providing context for and analysis of the critical issues raised by the primary sources.

Record details

ISBN: 0231105886 (alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780231105880 (alk. paper)
ISBN: 0231105894 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780231105897 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Physical Description: xvi, 366 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Publisher: New York : Columbia University Press, c2006.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Preface / Darrell Addison Posey -- Coeditor's note / Michael J. Balick -- Thoughts on the future of Amazonia : the region, residents, researchers, and realities / Michael J. Balick -- Romance and reality : the first European vision of Brazilian Indians / John Hemming -- Constructing tropical nature / Nancy Leys Stepan -- Demand for two classes of traditional agroecological knowledge in modern Amazonia / Charles R. Clement -- Fire in Roraima, 1998 -- politics and human impact : what role for indigenous people in Brazilian Amazonia? / Elizabeth Allen -- The Cerrado of Brazilian Amazonia : a much-endangered vegetation / James A. Ratter, J. Felipe Ribeiro, and Samuel Bridgewater -- A review of Amazonian wetlands and rivers : valuable environments under threat / Christopher Barrow -- Fragility and resilience of Amazonian soils : models from indigenous management / Peter A. Furley -- Is successful development of Brazilian Amazonia possible without knowledge of the soil and soil response to development? / Stephen Nortcliff -- Fragile soils and deforestation impacts : the rationale for environmental services of standing forest as a development paradigm in Amazonia / Philip M. Fearnside -- Concurrent activities and invisible technologies : an example of timber management in Amazonia / Christine Padoch and Miguel Pinedo-Vásquez -- Institutional and economic issues in the promotion of commercial forest management in Amerindian societies / Michael Richards.

Collect or cultivate -- a conundrum : comparative population ecology of ipecac (Carapichea ipecacuanha (Brot.) L. Andersson), a neotropical understory herb / Jan Salick -- Extractivism, domestication, and privatization of a native plant resource : the case of jaborandi (Pilocarpus microphyllus Stapf ex Holmes) in Maranhão, Brazil / Claudio Urbano B. Pinheiro -- Peasant riverine economies and their impact in the lower Amazon / Mark Harris -- Conservation, economics, traditional knowledge, and the Yanomami : implications and benefits for whom? / William Milliken -- The commodification of the Indian / Alcida Rita Ramos -- Euphemism in the forest : ahistoricism and the valorization of indigenous knowledge / Stephen Nugent -- What's the difference between a Peace Corps worker and an anthropologist? A millennium rethink of anthropological fieldwork / Joanna Overing -- Traditional resource use and ethnoeconomics : sustainable characteristics of the Amerindian lifestyles / Clóvis Cavalcanti -- Enhancing social capital : productive conservation and traditional knowledge in the Brazilian rain forest / Anthony Hall -- Appendix : Findings and recommendations.