Ecologies of the heart : emotion, belief, and the environment /

Anderson, a cultural ecologist, has spent much of his career learning how other cultures manage their environment in a sound ecological manner. Examples from the Maya culture and an early Chinese system known as Feng-Shui (meaning wind and water) are among the examples used by the author to develop his thesis. In essence, he feels that religious or folk beliefs have played a major role in guiding the moral outlook of these cultures in regard to their environment. Religion involving an emotional commitment is also basic. Among the eleven chapters, "Needs and Human Nature" and "The Disenchanted: Religion as Ecological Control, and Its Modern Fate" provide a convincing argument that people must be committed and touched emotionally if the environmental issues facing humanity are going to approach solution. We can learn from the past: "All traditional societies that have succeeded in managing resources well, over time have done it through religious or ritual representation of resource management." His key point is not "religion per se but the use of emotionally powerful cultural symbols." A well researched, stimulating book that should have wide appeal for government officials, politicians, and all those concerned with managing this planet in a sustainable manner. All levels. W. A. Niering Connecticut College

A cultural ecologist specializing in resource management, Anderson has studied how people manage their environment in such diverse countries as China, Malaysia, British Columbia and Mexico. He points out that traditional societies that have managed their resources well have done so in part through reliance on religion or ritual. Ecological problems, he claims, result from human choice, which is usually based on strong emotions. Anderson makes a scholarly, penetrating analysis of the sociocultural side of environmental decision-making. He examines a Chinese folk belief system, the spiritual kinship with animals of American Northwest Indians, and Mayan agriculture with its attendant ceremonies. He discusses economics, information processing and institutions. The author believes that laws and enforcement agencies are poor strategies for protecting the environment; instead, he advocates that we view environmental management as involving an ethical and moral code. He calls for hands-on environmental education and for the conservation movement to set priorities and hold to them. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved