Daniel Bates is the editor-in-chief of the journal Human Ecology.

This comprehensive sourcebook on human ecology combines 25 source articles published in the journal Human Ecology, enhanced with new research updates and thematic commentary. Each article includes a concise introduction, giving necessary context.

Comprehensive coverage of the field of human ecology

Theory, Method, and Explanation in Human Ecology.- Explaining Indonesian Forest Fires: Both Ends of the Firestick.- On the Notions of Mother Nature and the Balance of Nature and Their Implications for Conservation.- Hunter-Gatherers Optimize Their Foraging Patterns Using Lévy Flights.- What is Biocultural Diversity? A Theoretical Review.- The Conservation Catch-22: Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Change.- Does Environmental Talk Equal Environmental Knowledge? An Example from Newfoundland.- Dynamics of Local Food Procurement Systems.- Tracking the Carbon Footprint of Paleolithic Societies in Mediterranean Ecosystems.- Burning and Hunting in Australia's Western Desert.- The Wild Yam Question: Evidence from Baka Foraging in the Northwest Congo Basin.- Life Without Pigs: Decisions, Community Action, and Subsistence Changes Among the Irakia Awa, Papua New Guinea.- Food Security and Pastoralism in the Northern Sahel.- Agricultural Intensification and Large-scale Population Dynamics.- Labor Productivity and Agricultural Development: Testing Boserup.- Following Netting: The Cultural Ecology of Viliui Sakha Households in Post-Soviet Siberia.- Adaptive Responses to Environmental and Sociopolitical Change in Southern Zambia.- Social and Environmental Impacts of the Rise and Fall of Flue-Cured Tobacco Production in the Copán Valley.- Does Climate Change Affect War Frequency? The Case of Eastern China.- Development, Common Property Management, and Conservation.- Local Knowledge and Changing Subsistence Strategies in James Bay, Canada.- After the Cochabamba Water War of 2000: A Common Pool Resource Institution in the Urban Andes.- Gender, Social Difference and Coastal Resource Management in Lowland Philippine Fishing Communities.- Causes of Deforestation in Central Maine, USA.-Environmental and Economic Costs of Biofuels.

This book arose from the need to develop accessible research-based case study material which addresses contemporary issues and problems in the rapidly evolving field of human ecology. Academic, political, and, indeed, public interest in the environmental sciences is on the rise. This is no doubt spurred by media coverage of climate change and global warming and attendant natural disasters such as unusual drought and flood conditions, toxic dust storms, pollution of air and water, and the like. But there is also a growing intellectual awareness of the social causes of anthropogenic environmental impacts, political vectors in determining conser- tion outcomes, and the role of local representations of ecological knowledge in resource management and sustainable yield production. This is reflected in the rapid increase of ecology courses being taught at leading universities in the fa- growing developing countries much as was the case a decade or two ago in Europe and North America. The research presented here is all taken from recent issues of Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Since the journal itself is a leading forum for cont- porary research, the articles we have selected represent a cross-section of work which brings the perspectives of human ecology to bear on current problems being faced around the world. The chapters are organized in such a way to facilitate the use of this volume either to teach a course or to introduce an informed reader to the field.