Bøger i Culture, Place, and Nature serien

"Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork with herders and local officials in Alasha, an arid region in the far west of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Thomas White illustrates the ways in which state environmentalism--through grazing bans, enclosure, and resettlement--has transformed the lives of ethnic Mongol pastoralists and their animals. In exploring how the greening of the Chinese state affects the entangled lives of humans and animals at the margins of the nation state, this study contributes to debates in political anthropology, animal studies, political ecology, and more-than-human-geography"--

"Environmental anthropology is at its best when firmly grounded in respectful and systematic ethnographic research and writing that spotlights uncommon perspectives on widely recognized issues confronting the world. Intentionally crafted for undergraduate course use in anthropology, geography, and environmental studies, Sustaining Natures showcases the best contemporary writing on nature and sustainability. With concise introductions and sample discussion questions, the editors guide readers through some of the field's most pressing themes and debates, including farming, alternative energy, extractive industries, environmental justice, multispecies relationships, and urban ecology. This timely reader foregrounds diverse voices, views, and experiences of nature, from US corporate boardrooms to urban waste disposal sites in China, and moves environmental anthropology in new theoretical, methodological, and applied terrains"--

As societies around the world are challenged to respond to ever growing environmental crises, it has become increasingly important for activists, policy makers, and environmental practitioners to understand the dynamic relationship between environmental movements and the state. In communist Eastern Europe, environmental activism fueled the rise of democratic movements and the overthrow of totalitarianism. Yet, as this study of environmentalism in Slovakia shows, concern for the environment declined during the post-communist period, an ironic victim of its own earlier success.Through ethnographic interviews and archival materials, Edward Snajdr explains why Slovakia's ecology movement, so strong under socialism, fell apart so rapidly despite the persistence of serious environmental problems in the region. Synthesizing theory in anthropology and political ecology, he suggests that the fate of environmentalism in Slovakia marks the beginning of a global post-ecological age, where nature is culturally maginalized in new ways.In addition to its significance for policy makers, this book will be a valuable resource for anthropologists, sociologists, political ecologists, and scholars of East European and post-Soviet studies.

Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the "Six Great Tea Mountains" of Yunnan Province. In imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing.

Highlights an urgent problem for indigenous communities around the world--repeated displacement from their lands

New in Paperback--A thought-provoking look at indigenous stories, cultural institutions, and ways of knowing, and what they can teach us about living sustainably.

The Nature of Whiteness explores the intertwining of race and nature in postindependence Zimbabwe. Nature and environment have played prominent roles in white Zimbabwean identity, and when the political tide turned against white farmers after independence, nature was the most powerful resource they had at their disposal. In the 1970s, Mlilo, a private conservancy sharing boundaries with Hwange National Park, became the first site in Zimbabwe to experiment with wildlife production, and by the 1990s, wildlife tourism had become one of the most lucrative industries in the country. Mlilo attained international notoriety in 2015 as the place where Cecil the Lion was killed by a trophy hunter.Yuka Suzuki provides a balanced study of whiteness, the conservation of nature, and contested belonging in twenty-first-century southern Africa. The Nature of Whiteness is a fascinating account of human-animal relations and the interplay among categories of race and nature in this embattled landscape.

Forests Are Gold examines the management of Vietnam's forests in the tumultuous twentieth centuryfrom French colonialism to the recent transition to market-oriented economicsas the country united, prospered, and transformed people and landscapes. Forest policy has rarely been about ecology or conservation for natures sake, but about managing citizens and society, a process Pamela McElwee terms environmental rule. Untangling and understanding these practices and networks of rule illuminates not just thorny issues of environmental change, but also the birth of Vietnam itself.

Since the 1960s, when Brazil first encouraged large-scale Amazonian colonization, violence and confusion have often accompanied national policies concerning land reform, corporate colonization, indigenous land rights, environmental protection, and private homesteading. Conjuring Property shows how, in a region that many perceive to be stateless, colonists - from highly capitalized ranchers to landless workers - adopt anticipatory stances while they await future governance intervention regarding land tenure. For Amazonian colonists, property is a dynamic category that becomes salient in the making: it is conjured through papers, appeals to state officials, and the manipulation of landscapes and memories of occupation. This timely study will be of interest to development studies scholars and practitioners, conservation ecologists, geographers, and anthropologists.