Suggested Reading
People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. Emilio Moran. Textbook, but very easy to read, and not thick. I read it in one evening and the final chapter, Quality of Life: When Less is More discusses attitudes and ethics, and the dire need for change. It states everything that I am passionate about in regard to how we can do things differently.
Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. Emilio Moran. Textbook, and a bit tougher than People and Nature. But, it has in depth information, charts, graphs, and statistical information. Covers how humans have adapted to the major climate zones. Great resource.
Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style, Christie Matheson. This was a fun read; cover to cover in one evening. TONS of information, and entertaining. Great for women who are into trends, but still aware of the environment.
Living Like Ed, Ed Begley, Jr. Great for getting started. Many suggestions for changes that range from ‘free’ to ‘$50 and up’. Has a nice workbook in the back for you to record your own changes so you can start to see the savings add up from using less energy.
Intelligence in Nature: An Inquiry into Knowledge, Jeremy Narby. The author explores the Japanese concept of chi-sei, and presents the reader with an anthropological study of this concept in the West. “He not only uncovers a mysterious thread of intelligent behavior within the natural world but also probes the question of what humanity can learn from nature’s economy and knowingness in its own search for a saner, and more sustainable way of life.”
The Language of the Land: Living Among a Stone-Age People in Africa, James Stephenson. The author spends a year living with the Hadzabe, a hunting and gathering people in Africa. Extremely descriptive, and although very much like a textbook for a cultural anthropology class, it is inspiring and thought-provoking.
Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State. David Maybury-Lewis. Textbook. Deals with some very difficult but real socio-political issues.
Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition. Schultz, Emily A. and Robert Lavenda. Fourth Edition. Textbook. Deals with concepts of culture, ethnographic fieldwork, and a historical approach to anthropological explanations of cultural diversity. Covers the topics of human interdependence, family, kinship, marriage and ‘imagined communities’.
Religion and Culture: An Anthropological Focus. Scupin, Raymond, editor. A collection of articles discussing folklore, myths, rituals, shamanism, socery and witchcraft in various cultures around the world.
The Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives. Conrad, Peter. Seventh Edition. “Three major themes underlie the organization of this book: tha tthe conception of medical sociology must be broadened to encompass a sociology of health and illness; that medical care in the United States is presently in a crisis; and that the solution of that crisis requires that our health care and medical systems be reexamined from a critical perspective.”
