Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems / Edition 5

by John H. Bodley

Overview

Resource depletion, global warming, escalating energy costs, poverty, conflict. As human life becomes increasingly complicated, cultural anthropologist John H. Bodley presents a work that closes in on the social and environmental problems of our time and explores the deleterious global reaches of unsustainable growth in production and consumption. Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems addresses the contemporary reader interested in social science and history, environmental studies, globalization, and the political economy, revealing the development of humanity and our global prospectus for the future.

New to the fifth edition: A new contrast is drawn between the scale and power perspective and the view offered in Jared Diamond's popular books, Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. An important new focus is offered on the causes of global warming from a culture scale and social power perspective, linking it to poverty and misdirected growth. New material has been added on environmental and resource consequences of China's and India's expanding economies. New material has been added on sustainable development, energy, oil depletion, food, and population, including helpful new concepts and methods such as the ecological footprint, and various development indices, including the UN's new Millennium Goals. Chapter 8 has been thoroughly revised to include a discussion of several new global futurist models developed for major corporations, government agencies, the UN, and NGOs. Updated facts and figures are included throughout.

About the Author:
John H. Bodley is a cultural anthropologist, Regents Professor at Washington State University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759111387
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	11/09/2007
Edition description:	5th Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.05(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

John H. Bodley is Regents Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University. He is the author of Cultural Anthropology, 5th edition (AltaMira Press, 2011), and Victims of Progress, 5th edition (AltaMira Press, 2008).

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables     xi
Preface and Acknowledgments     xiii
Anthropological Perspectives on Contemporary Human Problems     1
Nature and Scope of the Problems     3
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, 1992     7
The UN Millennium Goals     8
Crisis Awareness and Response     11
The Significance of Culture Scale     13
The Uniqueness of Tribal Societies and Cultures     15
The "Original Affluent Society"     18
Understanding Commercial Societies and Cultures     19
Scale, Adaptation, and the Environmental Crisis     25
Cultural Transmission and Maladaptation     26
Scale and Cultural Evolution     28
Cultural Evolution and Adaptation     29
Nature and Scope of the Environmental Crisis     33
Biodiversity and the Death of the Tropical Rain Forests     34
Ecocide Soviet Style     38
Environmental Crisis and Cultural Change     41
Beyond "The Limits to Growth"     42
Environmental Commissions: Global 2000 and Our Common Future     47
Roots of the Environmental Crisis     49
Capitalism and Ideological Roots     52
Unregulated Self-Interest and theTragedy of the Commons     54
Land Degradation in the Mediterranean Region     57
Extinctions and Biodiversity: Human Nature or Culture Scale Crisis?     59
Tribal and Small-Scale Domestic Economies     63
Wealth in Tribal and Commercial Worlds     67
Socio-Cultural Scale and the Environment     70
Ecological Footprints     73
Natural Resources and the Culture of Consumption     89
Energy and Culture: Basic Considerations     90
Capitalism and the Culture of Consumption     95
The History of Capitalism     98
The European Origins of Capitalism     98
The Culture of Over-Consumption     101
Resource Consumption in America     107
Taking Stock     108
America's Forests as Resources     111
The Economics of Resource Depletion     114
Sustainable Development for the Common Good     115
The Consumption Culture's Environmental Cost: Western Coal     117
Elite Decision Makers and the Consumption Culture     119
Malnutrition and the Evolution of Food Systems     127
The Malthusian Dilemma     128
The Evolution of Food Systems     131
Foraging and Subsistence Security      132
The Shift to Farms and Gardens     134
The Domestic Mode of Food Production     135
Technological Advances in Food Production     137
Politically Directed Food Systems     139
The Commercialization of Grain: England 1500-1700     141
Famine in the Modern World     143
Global Malnutrition     144
The Persistence of Food Insecurity     145
Food Over-Consumption     148
The Political Economy of Hunger: Bangladesh     148
Commercial Factory Food Systems     157
Factory Food Production     158
Factory Potatoes versus Swidden Sweet Potatoes     162
The Commercialization of the American Food System, 1850-1890     163
Social Costs of the Food Production System     165
Energy Costs of the Distribution System     168
Food Marketing     171
Food Quality and Market Scale     175
Factory-Processed Potato Chips versus Manioc Cakes     176
Fishing, Global Trade, and "Ghost Acres"     179
The Limits of Food Production     182
The Population Problem     191
Maximum Global Population Estimates     194
Great Waves of Population Growth      197
Population Pressure, Carrying Capacity, and Optimum Population     199
Population Control among Foragers     201
Population Equilibrium in Aboriginal Australia     205
The Neolithic Population Explosion     208
Population Control among Tribal Village Farmers     210
Island Population Problems     213
The Case of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) "Collapse"     215
State Intervention and Population Control Mechanisms     216
Policy Implications     218
Poverty and Conflict     225
Violence and Insecurity in America     227
Social Order in the Tribal World     230
The Importance of Social Equality     232
Conflict and Conflict Resolution     234
Leadership     236
Internal Order in Politically Centralized Societies     237
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on War     240
The Scale of War and Violence in the Imperial and Commercial Worlds     244
The Fiscal-Military State and Military-Industrial Complexes     245
Deadly Arsenals: The Nuclear Weapons Threat     247
Failing States and Social Disorder     248
Roots of the Security Crisis: Culture, Overpopulation, or Inequality?     251
The Financialization Process and the Debt Crisis     253
Export Sugar, Starvation, and Infant Mortality in Brazil     256
State Terrorism and Investment Risk in Guatemala     259
Opulence and Deindustrialization in America     263
The Future     277
The Dilemma of Scale     278
Imagining the Global Future     282
IPCC SRES Scenarios     284
American Intelligence Community Futures     285
Shell Oil's Perspective on the Future     287
Sustainable Global Futures     290
TERRA-2000 and Information Society     290
UN GEO-3 Global Futures     293
The Great Transition Initiative     294
Transforming the Corporation     296
The Mondragon Cooperatives     298
Bhutan's Middle Path     299
Toward a Sustainable Planetary Society     301
Scaling Down: The Small Nations Alternative     302
The United States, Happy Planets, and Billionaires     304
Transforming America     310
Bibliography     319
Index     363
About the Author     381

What People are Saying About This

Deward Walker

This fifth edition of Bodley's book, Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems, is a refreshing assessment of many of the contemporary problems that continue to challenge human beings in all sectors of the globe. It is a real tour-de-force and a major advancement over the earlier fourth edition. I'm particularly impressed by the manner in which Bodley places anthropology at the forefront in the search for solutions to the many problems facing humanity, including affluence and poverty, the environmental crisis, natural resource depletion versus sustainability, malnutrition, the evolution of food systems, problems of the factory food system, population problems, conflict, and the future.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the fifth edition: [A] refreshing assessment of many of the contemporary problems that continue to challenge human beings in all sectors of the globe. It is a real tour-de-force.. .. I'm particularly impressed by the manner in which Bodley places anthropology at the forefront in the search for solutions to the many problems facing humanity, including affluence and poverty, the environmental crisis, natural resource depletion versus sustainability, malnutrition, the evolution of food systems, problems of the factory food system, population problems, conflict, and the future.

Deward Walker