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Book Cover
Book
Author Descola, Philippe.

Title In the society of nature : a native ecology in Amazonia / Philippe Descola ; translated from the French by Nora Scott
Published Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1994

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  304.2 Des/Its  AVAILABLE
 MELB  304.2 Des/Its  DUE 02-01-25
 W'PONDS  304.2 Des/Its  AVAILABLE
Description xviii, 372 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Series Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ; 93
Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ; 93
Contents Nature and society: lessons from Amazonia. Achuar and Jivaro: an illusory state of nature -- 1. The territorial space -- 2. Landscape and cosmos. Terrestrial water, celestial water. Upstream and down. The cosmos and its markers -- 3. Nature's beings. The taxonomic order. The anthropocentric order -- 4. The world of the house. Architectonic elements. Symbolic topography of the house. Domestic sociability and its spaces -- 5. The world of gardens. Clearing and gardening. Gardening magic -- 6. The world of the forest. Foraging techniques. Affinal nature -- 7. The world of the river. Fishing techniques. The marital bed -- 8. Categories of practice. The quantitative order. The qualitative order -- 9. The good life. Underexploitation of resources. Productive efficiency
Summary The Achuar Indians live in the remote forest reaches of the Upper Amazon and have developed sophisticated strategies of resource management. Philippe Descola, who has gathered material over several years of fieldwork, documents their rich knowledge of the environment. He explains how this technical knowledge of the increasingly threatened Amazonian ecosystems is interwoven with cosmological ideas that endow nature with the characteristics of society. Combining a symbolist approach with an ecological analysis, the book contributes a new theory of the social construction of nature
Analysis Brazil
Human geography
Notes Includes indexes
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-354) and indexes
Notes Translation of: Nature domestique
Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology no:93
Subject Achuar Indians -- Agriculture.
Achuar Indians -- Religion and mythology
Achuar Indians -- Religion.
Achuar Indians -- Social conditions.
Conservation of natural resources -- Amazon River Region.
Human ecology -- Amazon River Region.
Subsistence economy -- Amazon River Region.
LC no. 93001045
ISBN 0521411033 (hardback)
9780521411035
2735105113 (hardback : France only)
Other Titles Nature domestique. English