People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological

Relations
Author(s): Derick Fay
Source: Journal of Ethnobiology, 27(2):276-277.
Published By: Society of Ethnobiology
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771(2007)27[276:PANAIT]2.0.CO;2
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/
full/10.2993/0278-0771%282007%2927%5B276%3APANAIT%5D2.0.CO
%3B2

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276

BOOK REVIEWS

Vol. 27, No. 2

People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. Emilio

Moran. 2006. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. Pp. 218, photographs, line
illustrations, graphs, tables, maps. $30.95 (paper). ISBN 9781405105729.
In People and Nature, Emilio Moran concisely and forcefully brings decades of
research on anthropology and the environment to bear on global climatic and
environmental change. As he explains in the preface, while the book does not
follow the usual organization for an introduction to human ecology, cultural
ecology, or ecological anthropology text, the book covers much of this material in
what I hope is a more engaging organization (xi). Moran succeeds in this aim:
the book has an air of urgency, opening with an account of the scale of human
effects on the environment and the dramatic changes of the last fifty years. The
chapters that follow introduce many classic topics in human ecology, but reframe
and illuminate them in relation to the current crisis. Morans writing style is
accessible and engaging. I used the text successfully in an environmental
anthropology course with undergraduates with a mix of social science and
natural science backgrounds. Despite its exorbitant price, it proved to be
a popular text, and one thatbecause it does cover classic topicsintegrated
well with an existing syllabus. It is suitable for teaching at all levels, and would
be a valuable text for scholars in other disciplines and general readers seeking an
overview of anthropological approaches to human ecology.
All too often, authors who aim to review the literature on a topic end up
citing works without explaining their content adequately. Here Morans work
shines: he manages to review a vast literature while integrating it into his own
arguments. The references flow smoothly in the text, so that readers new to the
material are unlikely to be overwhelmed with the volume of references, or
frustrated by citations that simply allude to unstated arguments that the reader is
expected to know.
The first chapter, Human Agency and the State of the Earth, succinctly
provides data on the scale and increasing rate of contemporary human-induced
environmental change, then dispenses with the fantasy that one can think of
ecological systems in the absence of human agents (9). The next two chapters
focus on material that might be conventionally covered under the heading of
modes of subsistence (foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, etc.), grounding it in
the question of how human evolution and history can inform our understanding
of contemporary human-dominated ecosystems.
Chapter four, The Web of Life: Are We In It? focuses on the ecosystem
concept and land use change, illustrated primarily with the Brazilian Amazon,
while chapter five, What Makes People Do That? opens with a discussion of
Rappaports Pigs for the Ancestors, but ties it to the broader question of how

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people learn from, adapt to, and decide to transform their environments. The
chapter also covers the issue of population and demographic transition. Chapter
six then draws on the literature on community, institutions, and common
property, to ask both locally and globally about what conditions might enable
sustainable resource use and management.
Chapters seven and eight are probably the most innovative in their content as
well as their framing: here Moran focuses on issues of consumption and quality
of life, particularly changes in housing, diet and transportation among the middle
classes over the last 50 years, calling for a rethinking of patterns of
consumption (148). Chapter eight, Quality of Life: When Less is More, offers
a selection of possible solutions, most of which are grounded in changes in
individual consumption: change must begin with us, and from there to our
families, our communities, our regions and on upwards (170).
There is little in chapter eight with which I would disagree, particularly as it
(partially) offers tangible suggestions for readers to make a difference. At the
same time, though, I was frustrated that regulatory and other state-based solutions
were largely absent or underplayedit is as if Moran were conceding to
a neoliberal understanding of the role of the state (or perhaps giving up on the
possibility of state-led change under the current U.S. administration). For teaching
purposes, though, this makes the text particularly useful: by chapter eight, most
students are likely to be convinced of the urgency of addressing global
environmental changes, so one can raise the question of whether Morans solutions
are adequate, and invite students to consider alternative or more radical options.
Derick Fay
Department of Anthropology
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308