Human Ecology as Human Behavior: Essays in Environmental and Development Anthropology

John W. Bennett's essays cover a wide range: from the philosophy of environmentalism to the ecology of economic development; from the human impact on semi-arid lands to the ecology of Japanese forest management. This expanded paperback edition includes a new chapter on the role of anthropology in economic development.

Human interaction with the natural environment has a dual character. By turning increasing quantities of natural substances into physical resources, human beings might be said to have freed themselves from the constraints of low-technology survival pressures. However, the process has generated a new dependence on nature in the form of complex "socionatural systems," as Bennett calls them, in which human society and behavior are so interlocked with the management of the environment that small changes in the systems can lead to disaster. Bennett's essays cover a wide range: from the philosophy of environmentalism to the ecology of economic development; from the human impact on semi-arid lands to the ecology of Japanese forest management. This expanded paperback edition includes a new chapter on the role of anthropology in economic development.

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Bennett (Distinguished Anthropologist in Residence, Washington U.-St. Louis) discusses our dependence on nature in the form of complex "socionatural systems," in a collection of theoretical essays, field studies of resource management, and literature reviews and field surveys. Of interest to anthropologists, economists, and environmentalists. This expanded edition includes a new chapter on the role of anthropology in economic development. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John W. Bennett (1915-2005) was emeritus professor of anthropology at Washington University, St. Louis. He served as president of the American Ethnological Society and the Society for Applied Anthropology, and was a member of the editorial boards of the Annual Review of Anthropology and Reviews in Anthropology. Among his books are The Ecological Transition: Cultural Anthropology and Human Adaptation, Classic Anthropology: Critical Essays, 1944-1996, and Human Ecology as Human Behavior: Essays in Environmental and Development Anthropology.