Customer Reviews

Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia: An Ecological Anthropology of an Endangered World (Arizona Studies in Human Ecology)

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Here are short excerpts of what some professional anthropologists have written in reviews of this book in major journals:

John Bodley - "Very timely collection...examines key issues...a self-conscious and very successful attempt to combine basic and applied perspectives...." (American Anthropologist June 1996).

Jerome Levi - "For those who thought that as our discipline approaches the third millennium ecological anthropology had subsided beneath the waves of postmodernism, this book will come as a virtual tsunami." (American Ethnologist November 1995).

Bartholomew Dean - "This volume is a most welcome addition to our emergent understanding of the political ecology of lowland South America... For those complacent about the future of Amazonia and the region's inhabitants, this book provides a clarion call to action." (Cultural Survival Quarterly Fall 1995).

Richard Reed - "The volume provides strategic lessons.... the authors survey Amazonian realities ignored by recent developers.... the volume raises critical issues involved in protecting forests and peoples from the ravages of development." (Journal of Anthropological Research Spring 1997).

Read the full reviews and/or the book and judge for yourself!

Here are short excerpts of what some professional anthropologists have written in reviews of this book in major journals:

John Bodley - "Very timely collection...examines key issues...a self-conscious and very successful attempt to combine basic and applied perspectives...." (American Anthropologist June 1996).

Jerome Levi - "For those who thought that as our discipline approaches the third millennium ecological anthropology had subsided beneath the waves of postmodernism, this book will come as a virtual tsunami." (American Ethnologist November 1995).

Bartholomew Dean - "This volume is a most welcome addition to our emergent understanding of the political ecology of lowland South America... For those complacent about the future of Amazonia and the region's inhabitants, this book provides a clarion call to action." (Cultural Survival Quarterly Fall 1995).

Richard Reed - "The volume provides strategic lessons.... the authors survey Amazonian realities ignored by recent developers.... the volume raises critical issues involved in protecting forests and peoples from the ravages of development." (Journal of Anthropological Research Spring 1997).

Read the full reviews and/or the book and judge for yourself!

this book is one of the FEW books i looked forward to reading, and was able to finish AND understand in its entirety while studying as an anthropology undergrad. it was very informative, and lacked the annoying jargon too-commonly used by overeducated researchers trying to entertain their colleagues. had i read this earlier in my degree program, i might have chosen to pursue this field more closely. thanks for the inspiration, leslie.

Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia is an anthology which boasts contributions from archaeologists, anthropologists, cultural ecologists and nutritionists, its input from the indigenous population is limited to a two-page forward by Simeon Jimenez and Nelly Arvelo-Jimenez.

Sponsel mentions that an earnest attempt was made to include authors from the nine Amazonian countries. However, in the end, only three of the authors are from South America.

Perhaps I'd hoped for a more activist approach, or at least, a ground-based examination of current environmental practices and potential strategies. Instead, this is a scholarly book which sticks its nose in the pages of future academic research and does not appear to be looking up. The book provides no action plan and few resources or contacts for interested readers.

Still, in its own way, this is an interesting volume and offers more than a handful of insightful gems.