Counting Sheep: Twenty Ways of Seeing Desert Bighorn (Southwest Center Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816513988 ISBN 13: 9780816513987

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 1993

Synopsis

Imagine sending a number of nature writers out into the same unrelenting stretch of Sonoran Desert. Then consider telling them to focus their attention on just one animal—Ovis canadensis, popularly called the desert bighorn or borrego cimarrón—and have them write about it. Have them write from makeshift blinds or from behind a gun barrel. Have them write while walking across the Cabeza Prieta at night, or while flying over it trying to radio-collar the creatures. Have them write from actual sightings of the animals or simply from their tracks and droppings. What would result from such an exercise is Counting Sheep, an unusual anthology that demonstrates the range of possibilities in nature writing. While ostensibly a collection of writings about these desert sheep that live along the U.S.-Mexico border, it also represents an attempt to broaden the scope of the natural history essay. Writers trained in a wide range of disciplines spanning the natural and social sciences here offer a similarly diverse collection of writings, with women's, Hispanic, and Native American views complementing those in a genre long dominated by Anglo men. The four sections of the anthology comprise pre-Anglo-American tradition, examples of early nature writing, varied responses by modern writers to actually counting sheep, and a selection of essays that place bighorns in the context of the larger world. Counting Sheep celebrates the diversity of cultural responses to this single animal species in its Sonoran Desert habitat and invites readers to change the way in which they view their relationship to wild creatures everywhere. It also shows how nature writers can delight us all by the varied ways in which they practice their craft.

Contributors:
Charles Bowden
David E. Brown
Bill Broyles
Julian Hayden
William T. Hornaday
Paul Krausman
Danny Lopez
Eric Mellink
Mauricio Mixco
Gale Monson
Gary Paul Nabhan
Doug Peacock
Kermit Roosevelt
Harley G. Shaw
Charles Sheldon
Peter Steinhart
Anita Alvarez de Williams
Terry Tempest Williams
Ann Zwinger

About this title

About the Author

A MacArthur Fellow and recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, Gary Paul Nabhan is Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.

From Library Journal

While variations on so specific a theme runs the risk of putting readers to sleep, counting sheep with these authors will keep you wide awake. Ethnobotanist Nabhan here presents the diverse views of zoologists, anthropologists, historians, geographers, hunters, and journalists regarding desert bighorn. As the subtitle suggests, this book is as much about how the bighorns roam the hearts and minds of the watchers as it is about the elusive sheep themselves. Most of the authors take a very personal approach to "doing science," with Terry Tempest Williams, Ann Zwinger, and Charles Bowden offering particularly powerful narratives. While some readers new to "the new nature writing" may wish to start with a more general anthology such as On Nature's Terms ( LJ 10/15/92), Counting Sheep is essential reading for naturalists and conservationists. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0816513988
• ISBN 13: 9780816513987
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 280
• Editor: Nabhan Gary Paul