Items related to Amazonia: Man and culture in a counterfeit paradise...
When first published in 1971, Amazonia was a pioneering contribution to the emerging field of cultural ecology. Betty Meggers argued that the Amazon's luxurious vegetation concealed significant limitations for human exploitation, placing a ceiling on pre-Columbian population density and social complexity. This controversial view has implications for academic anthropology and also relates to the modern development of Amazonia, including attempts to introduce sustainable methods of intensive exploitation.
Amazonia in this revised new edition includes recent biological and climatic data. Ethnographic and archaeological evidence reemphasize the complexity of the ecosystem and broaden our understanding of past and present sophisticated adaptations among indigenous groups.
Amazonia in this revised new edition includes recent biological and climatic data. Ethnographic and archaeological evidence reemphasize the complexity of the ecosystem and broaden our understanding of past and present sophisticated adaptations among indigenous groups.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Betty J. Meggers is a research anthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Instituion, and an honorary fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology.
Review:
Amazonia provides the most comprehensive anthropological discussion so far of the Amazon basin as a human habitat. . . . This book specifies variables influencing cultural adaptation in the Amazon basin and presents a set of general principles constituting a theory of cultural evolution. In two descriptive sections of the book, Meggers analyzes the selective pressures in two distinct geographical zones: the terra firme or unflooded land, and the várzea or periodic floodplain. (Ellen B. Bass Science)
Meggers has marshalled an impressive argument on the ecological imperatives of a truly unique Amazonia. . . . We are given a well-written and quite thorough description of the physical features of the two zones and a series of ethnographic vignettes to illustrate the action of cultural adaptation. (Man)
An excellent, concise statement of the facts of the ecology of humid tropical lowlands, systematic descriptions of a number of widely spread Amazonian cultures, and a skillful integration of these two bodies of knowledge. The result is a demonstration that cultures are as surely subject to and molded by natural selection and environmental characteristics as are species of plants and animals. . . . Amazonia will inevitably be a basic text for the field of tropical ecology. (F. R. Fosberg Ecology)
Meggers has marshalled an impressive argument on the ecological imperatives of a truly unique Amazonia. . . . We are given a well-written and quite thorough description of the physical features of the two zones and a series of ethnographic vignettes to illustrate the action of cultural adaptation. (Man)
An excellent, concise statement of the facts of the ecology of humid tropical lowlands, systematic descriptions of a number of widely spread Amazonian cultures, and a skillful integration of these two bodies of knowledge. The result is a demonstration that cultures are as surely subject to and molded by natural selection and environmental characteristics as are species of plants and animals. . . . Amazonia will inevitably be a basic text for the field of tropical ecology. (F. R. Fosberg Ecology)
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherAldine, Atherton
- Publication date1971
- ISBN 10 0202010163
- ISBN 13 9780202010168
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages182
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Amazonia: Man and culture in a counterfeit paradise (Worlds of man)
Published by
Aldine, Atherton
(1971)
ISBN 10: 0202010163
ISBN 13: 9780202010168
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Amazonia: Man and culture in a counterfeit paradise (Worlds of man)
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Aldine, Atherton
(1971)
ISBN 10: 0202010163
ISBN 13: 9780202010168
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.5. Seller Inventory # G0202010163I5N00
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Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise
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Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: Very Good. Trade soft cover. Published Chicago: Aldine, 1971. Second printing. 8vo., viii+182 pp., illus. b/w plates. A very good, clean tight copy Size: 8vo. Seller Inventory # 002840
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Amazonia: Man and culture in a counterfeit paradise (Worlds of man)
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Aldine, Atherton
(1971)
ISBN 10: 0202010163
ISBN 13: 9780202010168
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Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise
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(1971)
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ISBN 13: 9780202010168
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Book Description Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st. 182pp.incl.index; HB gray w/blk.; some rub w/wear on edges&corners; bttm.corners worn; clean,tight pgs. DJ yellow w/blk.-photocover; rubbed w/spine sunned. " .the patterns of cultural adaptation among the peoples of the two main ecological zones of the Amazon: the terra firma (Amazon basin) and the varzea (floodplain)." photos&maps Size: 8vo - over 7ž" - 9ž" tall. Seller Inventory # 034566
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Amazonia : Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise
Published by
Aldine Atherton, Chicago, Illinois
(1971)
ISBN 10: 0202010163
ISBN 13: 9780202010168
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First Edition
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine condition. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good dust jacket. First Printing of the First Edition. Chicago, Illinois: Aldine Atherton, 1971. A nice copy of the tough-to-find, hardcover First Edition. Bright, clean, square, tight, unmarked copy. Sharp corners. No chips or tears. No owner's name or bookplate. No remainder mark. Illustrated with photos, maps, drawings, and diagrams. Original gray cloth. From the Dust Jacket: "Drawing on more than 20 years of study and field research, the author examines in detail the patterns of cultural adaptation among the peoples of the two main ecological zones of the Amazon: the terra firme (Amazon basin) and the varzea (floodplain). The book shows clearly how human societies develop and survive in what appears to be a luxuriant Garden of Eden but is really a counterfeit paradise. The author analyzes adaptations in technology, social institutions, and ideologies, and the theoretical basis for this analysis is provided in lucid and provocative statement of evolutionary theory applied to culture." Glossary. Selected References. Selected Further Reading. Index. [This copy bears the ownership ink stamp of Charles W. Myers of New York's American Museum of Natural History. Myers, Curator Emeritus, Department of Herpetology, along with John W. Daly, discovered several new species of frogs, and identified over 300 new alkaloids derived from the frog skins. It was Myers who first called the public's attention to the world's most poisonous creature - the tiny, 1.5-inch, Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates terribilis). The skin of this frog contains about one milligram of poison, enough to kill 10,000 mice, or 10 to 20 humans if the poison entered their bloodstreams. Myers was first to explain how the Embera Indians of western Colombia, use the frogs to prepare poison darts for their blowguns.] . First Printing of the First Edition. Hardcover. Fine condition/Very Good dust jacket. 8vo. ix, 182pp. Seller Inventory # 011364
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