In the Society of Nature
A Native Ecology in Amazonia

A study of the Achuar Indians of the Upper Amazon and their relationship with their environment.

Philippe Descola (Author), Nora Scott (Translated by)

9780521574679, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 August 1996

396 pages, 52 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.6 cm, 0.655 kg

' … an historical and ethnographic contribution to the study of a particularly important area of the New World, at the hinge of Amazonian and Andean high cultures. It is also … of undoubted theoretical and methodological value, one that directs anthropological thought in new directions.' Claude Levi-Strauss

The Achuar Indians live in the remote forest reaches of the Upper Amazon and have developed sophisticated strategies of resource management. Philippe Descola, who has gathered material over several years of fieldwork, documents their rich knowledge of the environment. He explains how this technical knowledge of the increasingly threatened Amazonian ecosystems is interwoven with cosmological ideas that endow nature with the characteristics of society. Combining a symbolist approach with an ecological analysis, the book contributes a new theory of the social construction of nature.

General introduction
Part I. The Sphere of Nature: 1. The territorial space
2. Landscape and cosmos
3. Nature's beings
Part II. On the Proper Use of Nature: 4. The world of the house
5. The world of gardens
6. The world of the forest
7. The world of the river
8. Categories of practice
9. The good life
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]