Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

Tending the Wild M. Kat Anderson

Tending the Wild By M. Kat Anderson

Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson


$21.99
Condition - Like New
Only 1 left

Summary

Demonstrates, what John Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning.

Tending the Wild Summary

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources by M. Kat Anderson

John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today - that much of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts. M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.

About M. Kat Anderson

M. Kat Anderson is a Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis; Associate Ecologist at the Agricultural Experimental Station at the University of California, Davis; and a faculty member in the Graduate Group in Ecology at the University of California, Davis. She is coeditor, with T. C. Blackburn, of Before the Wilderness: Native Californians as Environmental Managers (1993) and coeditor, with Henry T. Lewis, of Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness by Omer C. Stewart (2002).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
Note on Languages, Territories, and Names
of California Indian Tribes
Introduction

PART I. CALIFORNIA AT CONTACT
1 Wildlife, Plants, and People
2 Gathering, Hunting, and Fishing
3 The Collision of Worlds

PART II. INDIGENOUS LAND MANAGEMENT
AND ITS ECOLOGICAL BASIS
4 Methods of Caring for the Land
5 Landscapes of Stewardship
6 Basketry: Cultivating Forbs, Sedges, Grasses, and Tules
7 From Arrows to Weirs: Cultivating Shrubs and Trees
8 California's Cornucopia: A Calculated Abundance
9 Plant Foods Aboveground: Seeds, Grains, Leaves,
and Fruits
10 Plant Foods Belowground: Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes,
Taproots, and Tubers

PART III. REKINDLING THE OLD WAYS
11 Contemporary California Indian Harvesting and
Management Practices
12 Restoring Landscapes with Native Knowledge

Coda: Indigenous Wisdom in the Modern World
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Additional information

GOR012695616
9780520280434
0520280431
Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources by M. Kat Anderson
Used - Like New
Paperback
University of California Press
2013-10-10
558
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

Customer Reviews - Tending the Wild