Sustainability, human ecology, and the collapse of complex societies: economic anthropology and a 21st century adaptation

Abstract

List of Figures List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part I Anthropology and Economics: A Review 1. Anthropology and the Cosmology of a Modern Economics 2. Wants, Needs and the Question of Surplus vs. Wealth 3. Complexity and Stability or Stagnation: Declining Returns and the Business Cycle 4. Wealth, Consumption, Quality of Life and Standard of Living 5. The Great Debate: Economists and Anthropologists: The Market and Society, Continued Part II. Introduction to Hominid Economics 6. Introduction 7. Forest Fires, Origins and Myths 8. Traditional Peoples and Fire 9. Climate and Fire, Assessing Time's Arrow and the Antiquity of Anthropogenic Fire 10. Forest Management in Modern and Traditional Society 11. The Degraded Environment and Homo Sapiens 12. Co-evolutionary Processes and Environmental Exploitation 13. Makeup and Nature of Forests: Fire-Adapted Species vs. 'Old Growth' Determining Fire History: Fire Scars, Fire 14. Histories and Thermal Alteration 15. Insects, Biomass Reduction and Pesticides 16. Conclusion: Forests and The Future of Man Part III Cycles of Growth and Collapse versus the Possibility of Sustainable Societies 17. Introduction 18. The Problem of Population and the Nature of Human Society 19. Consumerism and Sustainability: Japan as an Example 20. The Evolution of Modern Japan and its Transformation Part IV The Role of Ideology and Religious Precepts in the Containment and Change of Society: A Modernist View 21. Ideology and Religious Precepts and Motivations: Why People Work 22. Fundamentalism versus Globalism Part V Conclusion Bibliography Index