Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story [Paperback]

Gary Paul Nabhan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 1998

Many ecologists write of nature, treating it as an object separate from people. Gary Nabhan writes in nature, finding aspects of human existence in the life of the wild. In a new collection of 26 essays, Nabhan explores the deep and complex connections between nature and people, seeking to further a more realistic understanding of the impact of various cultures on the planets biodiversity. There are many ecologists who write of nature, treating it as an object separate from the world of people. Gary Paul Nabhan writes in nature, finding elemental aspects of human existence in the life of the wild.One day while studying population maps with a colleague at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Nabhan recognized a surprising correlation between upheavals in human communities and the incidence of endangered species. Where massive in-migrations and exoduses were taking place, more plants and animals had become endangered. Locations with stable human populations sustained native wildlife more easily over the long term.This revelation prompted Nabhan to spend the next three years studying relationships among cultural diversity, community stability, and conservation of biological diversity in natural habitats. He concentrated on cultures of habitat, human communities with long histories of interacting with one particular kind of terrain and its wildlife.Here the author of The Desert Smells Like Rain has combined the eye of an ethnobiologist with chronicles from the Far Outside, that realm in which diverse natural habitats and indigenous cultures coexist. The result is a mosaic of essays that celebrates the vital connections between soul and space.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Essays on plants, animals, wild places, and human interactions with them all. Nabhan (The Geography of Childhood, 1994, etc.), a research scientist at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and a MacArthur fellow, has for many years worked to promote the conservation of plants that are culturally and economically important to various indigenous peoples around the world. Many of these essays (most previously published in periodicals) touch on these plants and their use in human cultures. For example, Nabhan discusses the rise of diabetes among the O'odham people of Arizona following their shift from a diet based on native plants to one relying on processed, mass-produced foods; in another, he examines the possible downfall of Mexico's tequila industry, which now relies on a single agave (a kind of succulent) as a source of pulp, though there are dozens of varieties of agave plants. Nabhan writes of the sense of wonderment that comes from a knowledge of the natural world, and of the important work of learning what might be called ``natural literacy'' as a cultural skill. The best piece in the book indirectly addresses this last matter; in it, Nabhan decries the sterility of school playgrounds, which ``seem to squelch life rather than nurture it.'' Nabhan is not a particularly fluent writer, and he often strains for effect (in one not untypical passage, he writes of an ``all-female lizard species with reproductive habits more radical than anything in lesbian literature''). Many of Nabhan's pieces preach to a small choir. Nonetheless, the themes touched on are certain to be of interest to those readers concerned about environmental issues, especially worldwide biodiversity and its conservation. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

...small but inspiring stories from the far outposts of humanity teach us about the tense and tenuous relationship between culture and biological diversity. -- The New York Times Book Review, Mark Dowie --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (September 16, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887178961
• ISBN-13: 978-1887178969
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #894,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We all need to see culture this way, July 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story (Paperback)

So few nature writers (Barry Lopez being one notable exception) are concerned with dissolving the artificial wall between humanity and nature. Nabhan takes this objective one step further by showing that biodiversity actually depends on the survival of human communities. In specific, human communities that have adapted to and depended upon natural systems for their own survival. For those who are interested in conservation, environmental science, human cultures, Native American societies, ethnobotany, archaeology, and anthropology, this book is a must-read.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Endangered interactions between humans and the natural world, May 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story (Paperback)

What is the proper term for someone like Gary Nabhan? Ethnoecologist? I found this to be a well written, thoroughly enjoyable book. I don't usually make it all the way to the end of a book of essays, but I read every one of these. I found Nabhan a pleasant traveling companion as I tagged along with him through the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and northern Mexico, sleuthing out the tatters and remants of native peoples' relationships with the habitats in which their cultures evolved. Nabhan is largely concerned with what Dan Janzen has called "the most insidious kind of extinction -- the extinction of interactions." Through visits with fascinating people in fascinating places, he explores what have now become highly endangered interactions between rare desert plants and their even rarer insect or mammal pollinators, between wild plants and their domesticators, between competitors for scarce natural resources (be they human or hummingbird), and between story tellers and their children and grandchildren. This is a book that will make you want to get to the roots of your relationship with the natural world by talking to your parents and grandparents about their own childhood experiences in nature. Whether your interests run primarily to botany, to zoology, or to anthropology, you will find much in these essays to please, sadden, and stimulate you.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingly beautiful without the least bit of romanticism, February 27, 2003

By 

Ken Lassman (Lawrence, Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story (Hardcover)

Gary Nabhan's book has images in it that are complex and, judging by some of the reader's reviews, too fine-grained for some people's tastes. Like all great written works, Gary has taken the time not to oversimplify or over-generalize, but the resulting ambiguities and lack of forcing these essays into a pre-ordained thread has left me with images that will stick with me for a long time. They, like the ecosystems and cultures that he describes, point to a complexity which reveals itself slowly and over time--lifetimes, in some cases. It is this complexity that he celebrates and mourns the loss of as the cultures and languages that have evolved close to the land become increasingly diluted and discarded in the rush of assimilation that has overtaken so many cultures,languages and landscapes. His case for breathing life back into our landscapes THROUGH our culture and language is compelling, and a challenge to us all, wherever we live.