Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies

Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies

Environmental anthropologists organize the realities of interdependent lands, plants, animals, and human beings; advocate for the neediest among them; and provide understandings that preserve what is needed for the survival of a diverse world. Can the things that anthropologists have learned in their studies of small-scale systems have any relevance for developing policies to address global problems? Townsend explores this dilemma in her captivating, concise exploration of environmental anthropology and its place among the disciplineâ€™s subfields. Maintaining the structure and clarity of the previous edition, the second edition has been revised throughout to include new research, expanded discussions of climate change, and a chapter devoted to spiritual ecology. In the historical overview of the field, Townsend shows how ideas and approaches developed earlier are relevant to understanding how todayâ€™s local populations adapt to their physical and biological environments. She next presents a closer look at global environmental issuesâ€”rapid expansion of the world economic system, disease and poverty, the loss of biodiversity and its implications for human healthâ€”to demonstrate the effects of interactions between local and global communities. As a capstone, she gives thoughtful consideration to how, as professionals and as individuals, we can move toward personal engagement with environmental problems.

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