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Latin American Studies / Biological Sciences / Ecology / Environmental Sciences / Geography / Latin American History

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Nature and Culture in the Andes Daniel W. Gade "A senior scholar's masterful contribution to environmental, cultural, and historical geography."— Karl Zimmerer, author of Nature's Geography "Nature and Culture in the Andes  provides a suite of graceful, sweeping essays on the relations of landscape and people in the Andean countries of South America. It offers fresh insights and personal reflections on timely and varied topics such as urban environmental change, disease ecology, wilderness, and food plant biodiversity. The book is a senior scholar's masterful contribution to environmental, cultural, and historical geography as well as to numerous related fields."— Karl Zimmerer, author of Nature's Geography "I doubt that anyone else writing at present in and for our discipline could create an equally convincing and even inspiring collage from disparate themes and materials as Dan Gade obviously has in this project. Somehow he makes it all hang together and impart a clear humanistic, but also a valid scientific message."— Philip L. Wagner, Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University Nature and Culture in the Andes reveals the intimate and unexpected relationships of plants, animals, and people in Western South America. Throughout his quest to understand this geographically diverse region Daniel Gade integrates the imagination of an expert geographer with the research skills of a natural and cultural historian. He presents a holistic vision of the Andes, and of the world, that broadens the perspective achieved solely by objective scientific methods of inquiry. In a series of essays that illustrate the convergence of nature and culture Gade demonstrates how traditional scientific preconceptions have hindered critical thinking. By showing, among other examples, that highland Incas who were thought to be incapable of functioning in the jungle have cultivated coca in warm forested valleys for generations, that the absence of trees in the Andes has long been attributed solely to climate without consideration of agriculture or human activity, and that llamas and alpacas are not—as popular knowledge has long maintained—sources of milk Gade encourages us to look beyond the obvious to see the true complexity of ecological relationships. Daniel W. Gade is professor of geography at the University of Vermont, Burlington.   Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@wwwtest.uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)

July 1999 302 pp.    6 x 9 27 b/w illus., 17 line illus., 9 maps   ISBN-10: 0-299-16120-X    ISBN-13: 978-0-299-16120-0 Cloth $45.00s ISBN-10: 0-299-16124-2    ISBN-13: 978-0-299-16124-8 Paper $18.95s Add titles to your shopping cart by clicking on the "Add this book to cart" link above. You can submit your order electronically, paying for it with your credit card. Click here for a further explanation of the shopping cart feature Never ordered from us before? Read this first.

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