Culture and the Changing Environment

Michael J. Casimir is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. He has conducted prolonged fieldwork on the ecology, economy, environmental management and nutritional and socialisation patterns among pastoral nomads in west Afghanistan and Kashmir. Together with Aparna Rao he was chairperson of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples of the International Union of Ethnological and Anthropological Sciences (1995–1998), and was until 2004 one of the editors of Nomadic Peoples (Berghahn), the official journal of the Commission. His major publications include Flocks and Food. A Biocultural Approach to the Study of Pastoral Foodways (1991); Mobility and Territoriality (ed. 1992); Nomadism in South Asia (ed. 2003).

• List of Maps, Figures and TablesPrefaceThe Mutual Dynamics of Cultural and Environmental Change: An Introductory EssayMichael J. CasimirPART I: EVALUATING, ATTRIBUTING AND DECIDINGChapter 1. Antinomies of Environmental Risk Perception: Cognitive Structure and EvaluationGisela Böhm and Hans-Rüdiger PfisterChapter 2. Risk Management and Morality in Agriculture: Conventional and Organic Farming in a German RegionThomas Döring, Lutz H. Eckensberger, Annette Huppert and Heiko BreitChapter 3. Attributed Causes of Environmental Problems: A Cross-Cultural Study of Coping StrategiesJosef Nerb, Andrea Bender and Hans SpadaChapter 4. Decision-Making in Times of Disaster: The Acceptance of Wet-Rice Cultivation among the Aeta of Zambales, PhilippinesStefan SeitzChapter 5. Drought and ‘Natural’ Stress in the Southern Dra Valley: Varying Perceptions among Nomads and FarmersBarbara CasciarriChapter 6. Local Environmental Crises and Global Sea-Level Rise: The Case of Coastal Zones in SenegalAnita EngelsChapter 7. Meshing a Tight Net: A Cultural Response to the Threat of Open Access Fishing GroundsAndrea BenderPART II: KNOWLEDGE, MEANING AND DISCOURSEChapter 8. Dangers, Experience and Luck: Living with Uncertainty in the AndesBarbara GöbelChapter 9. Transforming Livelihoods: Meanings and Concepts of Drought, Coping and Risk Management in BotswanaFred Krüger and Andrea GrotzkeChapter 10. Cultural Politics of Natural Disasters: Discourses on Volcanic Eruptions in IndonesiaJudith SchleheChapter 11. Knowing the Sea in the ‘Time of Progress’: Environmental Change, Parallel Knowledges and the Uses of Metaphor in Kerala (South India)Götz HoeppeChapter 12. Mass Tourism and Ecological Problems in Seaside Resorts of Southern Thailand: Environmental Perceptions, Assessments and Behaviour Regarding the Problem of WasteKarl Vorlaufer, Heike Becker-Baumann and Gabriela SchmittChapter 13. Local Experts – Expert Locals: A Comparative Perspective on Biodiversity and Environmental Knowledge Systems in Australia and NamibiaThomas WidlokNotes on ContributorsIndex

“This remarkable anthology of 13 essays is a cross-cultural study on ecological anthropology, which examines the cultural construction of nature, human evaluation of environmental risks, and human action to mitigate such risks. The anthology persuasively critiques the privileging of Western rationality over culture-specific perspectives of environmental change… [It] stands alone for the geographical sweep of its contributions - from Europe, Asia, and Africa - and its disciplinary eclecticism, which draws deeply on anthropology, geography, psychology, ethnography, ethnology, and sociology… Essential.”  ·  Choice