Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability. Edited by Melissa K. Nelson and Dan Shilling. 2018. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. 276 pp.

Abstract

While this book has relevance to ethnobiology and ecological anthropology, it will also resonate with general anthropologists, including scholars of paleoanthropology. In Schilling’s introductory chapter, he suggests that during the Pleistocene Era, hominins lived sustainably because they sensed their existence was linked to the environment’s well-being. It seems reasonable to me that hominin populations who were successful at transmitting ecological knowledge would share an evolutionary advantage over populations unable to do so. From prehistoric lithics to modern industrial technology, Schilling suggests sustainability is a moral rather than technological concern that depends on Homo sapiens’ views of the natural environment.