Tending the Wild
Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources
1st Edition
Published on 14. June 2005
Book
Hardback
555 pages
978-0-520-23856-5 (ISBN)
Description
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. Marvellously detailed and beautifully written, "Tending the Wild" is an unparalled 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.
Reviews / Votes
"This fascinating book is rich with information and beautifully written for a broad audience of both laypeople and professionals." - Sue Rosenthal, Bay Nature "Tending the Wild is an enormously rich and highly readable text on the remarkably diverse land management techniques practiced by California Indians over millennia. This book serves as an invaluable resource as we strive to conserve California's enormous cultural and biotic heritage in the new century. A triumph!" - Michael H. Horn, California State University Fullerton "Tending the Wild supports the little know fact that Indian groups in California historically practiced a kind of "environmental bonsai" through their centuries long management activities. Kat Anderson's work is timely and will make an important contribution toward a better understanding of the historic ecologies of North America." - Greg Cajete, University of New Mexico"More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
31 b-w photographs, 13 line illustrations, 3 maps, 12 tables
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
998 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-23856-5 (9780520238565)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
M. Kat Anderson
Tending the Wild
Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources
Book
06/2005
1st Edition
University of California Press
€27.22
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Person
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).
Content
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 Herbs, Sedges, Grasses, and Tules / 7. From Arrows to Weirs: Cultivating Shrubs and Trees / 8. California's Comucopia: A Calculated Abundance / 9. Plant Foods Aboveground: Seeds, Grains, Leaves, and Fleshy Fruits / 10. Plant Foods Belowground: Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes, Tubers, and Taproots 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