Limited Wants, Unlimited Means: A Reader On Hunter-Gatherer Economics And The Environment First Printing Edition

by John Gowdy (Editor)

11 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1559635554

ISBN-10: 155963555X

Why is ISBN important?

Other Sellers

from

Other Sellers

See all 2 versions

Used: Good | Details

Sold by gdwil

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

$3.99 delivery Sep 27 - Oct 4. Details

Select delivery location

Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

List Price: $53.00 Details

Save: $25.43 (48%)

FREE delivery Mon, Sep 26. Order within 7 hrs 1 min

Select delivery location

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

For roughly 99% of their existence on earth, Homo sapiens lived in small bands of semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, finding everything they needed to survive and thrive in the biological richness that surrounded them. Most if not all of the problems that threaten our own technologically advanced society -- from depletion of natural capital to the ever-present possibility of global annihilation -- would be inconceivable to these traditional, immediate-return societies. In fact, hunter-gatherer societies appear to have solved problems of production, distribution, and social and environmental sustainability that our own culture seems incapable of addressing.

Limited Wants, Unlimited Means examines the hunter-gatherer society and lifestyle from a variety of perspectives. It provides a brief introduction to the rich anthropological and sociological literature on non-agricultural societies, bringing together in one volume seminal writings on the few remaining hunter-gatherer cultures including, the !Kung, the Hadza, and the Aborigines. It examines the economics of traditional societies, and concludes with a multifaceted investigation of how such societies function and what they can teach us in our own quest for environmental sustainability and social equality.

Limited Wants, Unlimited Means is an important work for students of cultural anthropology, economic anthropology, environmental studies, and sustainable development, as well as for professionals, researchers, and anyone interested in prehistoric societies, environmental sustainability, or social justice.

James Suzman
166
Hardcover
52 offers from $5.22

Jason De Leon
327
Paperback
79 offers from $17.23
Paul Farmer
112
Paperback
88 offers from $3.49
Lila Abu-Lughod
105
Paperback
44 offers from $10.35

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

For roughly 99% of their existence on earth, Homo sapiens lived as small bands of hunter-gatherers in societies that appear to have solved problems of production, distribution, social equity, and environmental sustainability that our own culture seems incapable of addressing. Limited Wants, Unlimited Means examines the hunter-gatherer society and lifestyle, providing a brief introduction to the rich literature on non-agricultural societies. It examines the economics of traditional societies and presents a multifaceted investigation of how such societies function and what that can teach us in our own quest for sustainability and equality.

About the Author

John Gowdy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Island Press; First Printing edition (December 1, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 378 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 155963555X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1559635554
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,140,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,271 in Environmental Economics (Books)
- #2,724 in Ecology (Books)
- #3,587 in Environmentalism

Customer Reviews:
11 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		38%
4 star		16%
3 star		47%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

E Adams

A different view

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2015

Verified Purchase

I had always thought being a hunter-gatherer was a hard, dismal, dreary life-style. Not so, according to the research and study presented in this very readable book. If you are interested in sustainability and environmental responsibility/relationship with nature, you will find much of value and to think about.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bob Pr.

An economic POV

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2016

Verified Purchase

Written from an economics point of view, it analyzes a number of foraging societies.

Helpful

Nicholas Floyd

Debunking the myths of our "savage past" and our "human nature"

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2015

Modern civilization has a tendency to congratulate itself as it exhales a heavy and self-aggrandizing sigh of relief that we are so blessed to live in this wonderful day in age, rejoicing, "No more are the brutish days of 'survival of the fittest' and the never-ending toils of struggling to find food, battling disease, and fending off invaders and predators!" But as clearly demonstrated in this book, the pre-agricultural lives of our ancestors were comprised mostly of leisure time, because food was generally plentiful, requiring only a few hours of "work" per day. People were generally healthy and happy, largely in part because their only "work" was enjoyable communal activities that strengthened social bonds and strengthened one's connection to nature. And while there certainly were occasional famines and other hardships, this book paints a pretty clear picture that, for all our "progress" over the last few millennia, in many (or most?) regards we are worse off now than when we started.

Some of modern civilization's most lamentable qualities are often casually written off as human nature, as we collectively shrug our shoulders and concede that our species is "naturally" and unavoidably selfish, materialistic, hierarchical, male-dominated, warlike, etc., touting the modern pervasiveness of these qualities as evidence of their inevitability. But modern civilization comprises only a tiny sliver on the timeline of human existence, and by closely examining the first 99% of human history (as this book does), we see that in fact the most consistent human qualities were peacefulness, sharing, sexual equality, social equality, equal distribution of "wealth" (in terms of food), and so forth. Notably absent are the repression and shame that dominate the cultures of today.

The life of a hunter-gatherer sounds, to me at least, quite enviable and enticing.

I should point out that this book is academic/scientific in nature, and as one might reasonably expect of such material, it generally lacks things like humor, wit, personality, etc., thereby making it a potential snooze fest for many readers. But I don't hold that against the book, because it never promises or pretends to be a thrilling read, and what it lacks in pizzazz it more than makes up for with fascinating info regarding the true nature of humankind, and where we (modern humans) came from.

This book is a collection of essays and papers by different authors, and as such the voice and the writing style is inconsistent. That in itself does not detract from the book, but the reason why I docked one star is because a few of the essays used writing styles that didn't jive with me for one reason or another (choppy word flow, convoluted sentences that could have been greatly simplified, intense usage of the passive voice, etc.).

But overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in anthropology, with the one caveat mentioned above: what makes this book worthwhile is not its flair, but its implications regarding our understanding of human nature.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jurij Fedorov

A must read for everyone who leads or works with group of people

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2014

This was for me a groundbreaking book. Hunter-Gatherers are egalitarian and both sexes are equal, they only work a few hours each day, and they have more than enough food to eat. The don't own many things and don't want to own many things, they share and give away - their economy is nothing like ours. The "economic man" who only wants more and more is an arbitrary concept. We don't want more, we want a group to belong too and share everything with them. We are not created to live in this modern world. And we are not created to live by ourselves or just our families. In our natural way of living as Homo sapiens our group is our life - it's more important than anything else. And if you don't like this particular group you can move around as you wish. People respect you and the elderly and children don't need to work - there is more than enough food for the ones who can't or don't want to work. The most important thing is to share everything and keep the tight-knit group culture. Some people will die or suffer, but mostly things are calm.

This book is great! After reading the resume at the beginning your mind will be mindblown. After that it goes into the things explained at the resume - which is a plus for us geeky folks. The anthropological stories are fantastic and deserve to be read by everyone. Must read.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Anarcho-Savagist

highly underrated reader

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2006

this book completely destroys from front to back and should be a starting point for anyone interested in egalitarian / immediate return hunter-gatherers and band life. the book does a fabulous job of starting out with an excerpt from Marshall Sahlins' "the original affluent society", the key to upturning the anthropology world on its head. the book goes over mechanisms of hunter-gatherer life that keeps them autonomous, cooperative bands and displays how relationships within them are fluid, neglecting them of leaders. James Woodburn's works from the Hadza on this are crucial on the comparison between immediate return and delayed return societies. Women's status is covered by the late Eleanor Leacock and the book is concluded with an essay by Paul Shepard entitled "A post-historic primitivism" that completely shreds historical consciousness.

John Gowdy did an amazing job at putting all these essays together in such a coherent way throughout covering so much ground. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers is a good companion to this.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

ikata

its ok if you are an economist

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2001

but kinda dry if you are not. still, the information is very useful

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Limited Wants, Unlimited Means: A Reader On Hunter-Gatherer Economics And The Environment First Printing Edition

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customers who bought this item also bought