Grappling with Societies and Institutions in an Era of Socio-Ecological Crisis

Hans A. Baer is principal honorary research fellow in the School of Social Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

• Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: The Making of a Radical Anthropologist 1 – Immigration and Naturalization: From Peru to the United States and then to Australia2 – The Sixties and the Aircraft Industry Company: Being Politicized within the Bowels of the Corporation during the Sixties 3 – Roman Catholicism: Leaving the Womb of Holy Mother the Church4 – The Corporatization of Academia: From the Bush Leagues to an Elite Australian UniversityPart II: Studying Societies and Institutions 5 – Studies in Religion: Ethnogaphic Studies among the Levites of Utah and and African American Spiritual Churches 6 – Socio-Political and Religious Life in East Germany: Observations of a Fulbright Scholar and Ethnographer7 – Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the US, UK, and Australia: Hanging Out with the ‘Quacks’ 8 -- The Australian Climate Movement: Coming to Grips with the Ecological Crisis Down Under and Globally9 –Towards Democratic Eco-Socialism as an Alternative World SystemEpilogue: Retirement: Refusing to Retire from Life References Index

Hans Baer—anthropologist, product of complex cultural interactions, and self-described gadfly—presents a deeply personal account of a world on the cusp of decision. He presents a stark choice: ecological justice and survival in a world of more modest but also more dependable resources for all, or a headlong rush into the cataclysm orchestrated for profit by the already grossly overpaid against the rest of humanity. This accessibly written account of an activist life should move us all to thought and action.