Originally published in 1974, Arctic and Alpine Environments examines, the relatively simple ecosystems of arctic and alpine lands that still occupy extensive areas little disturbed by modern technology. The book argues that there is a necessity for carefully controlled development of the resources of these regions and suggests that there is a risk of irreversible disturbance without full understanding of these regions. This book provides a detailed documentation of cold-stressed arctic and alpine terrestrial environments and systematically deals with the present and past physical environment – climate, hydrology and glaciology; biota – treeline, vegetation, vertebrate zoology, and historical biogeography; abiotic processes – geomorphological and pedological and the role of man – bioclimatology, archaeology and technological impact, including radioecology. The book will appeal to academics and students of environmental and biological science, as well as providing a significant source for conservationists’, government agencies and industrial organizations.

Written during the height of the ecology movement, The Ecological Transition is a stunning interdisciplinary work. It combines anthropology, ecology, and sociology to formulate an understanding of cultural-environmental relationships. While anthropologists have been studying relationships between humans and the physical environment for a very long time, only in the last thirty years have questions inherent in these relationships broadened beyond description and classification. For example, the concept of environment has been extended beyond the physical into the social. Although anthropologists have adopted many of the concepts that Bennett develops in the book, he also feels that the central issues have never been addressed, either by anthropologists or by people in related disciplines. The most important of these, in Bennett's opinion, is the failure to incorporate a respect for the environmental in contemporary culture, which would allow making exceptions in certain human practices in order to protect the environment. His point in The Ecological Transition is that a basic cultural change in modern civilization is necessary to achieve this end. Both a theoretical and a practical work, The Ecological Transition emphasizes the relationships between human culture, the physical environment, technology, and social policy. The Ecological Transition is a challenging volume that makes us face the consequences of human behavior in the modern world: its effect on pollution, natural resources, agriculture, the economy, and population, to name just a few areas. The book remains a significant contribution to the discourse on social, economic, and environmental problems. While the book was first published in 1976, it still reads as a contemporary tract.

First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

Despite the long human history of the Canadian central arctic, there is still little historical writing on the Inuit peoples of this vast region. Although archaeologists and anthropologists have studied ancient and contemporary Inuit societies, the Inuit world in the crucial period from the 16th to the 20th centuries remains largely undescribed and unexplained. In Order to Live Untroubled helps fill this 400-year gap by providing the first, broad, historical survey of the Inuit peoples of the central arctic.Drawing on a wide array of eyewitness accounts, journals, oral sources, and findings from material culture and other disciplines, historian Renee Fossett explains how different Inuit societies developed strategies and adaptations for survival to deal with the challenges of their physical and social environments over the centuries. In Order to Live Untroubled examines how and why Inuit created their cultural institutions before they came under the pervasive influence of Euro-Canadian society. This fascinating account of Inuit encounters with explorers, fur traders, and other Aboriginal peoples is a rich and detailed glimpse into a long-hidden historical world.

Recent international attention has focused on desertification and its concomitants, especially the diminution of flora and fauna in arid and semiarid lands and the resulting reduction in the economic value of those lands. Natural factors such as drought and wind erosion, as well as various technological practices, have been blamed for the present situation in many countries. Most observers agree that human beings have been both perpetrators and victims of desertification. Anthropologists have long been interested in documenting hew different societies have affected and been affected by their environments. The papers in this volume present ease studies of societies ranging from ancient Peru to contemporary Israel, along with several topically oriented works. All are designed to illustrate how various societies--whether by water management or by the exploitation of plants and animals--have attempted to achieve ecological balance. Social organization and ideology as well as technology are discussed as important variables affecting the ways in which populations adapt to, or cope with, desertification.