The Anthropology of Extinction : Essays on Culture and Species Death

Indiana University Press

The Anthropology of ExtinctionEssays on Culture and Species Death\nAuthor(s): Genese Marie Sodikoff, Peter Whiteley, Jill Constantino, Bernard C. Perley, Tracey Heatherington, Laurie R. Godfrey, Emilienne Rasoazanabary, Paul B. Garrett, Gregory Forth\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Indiana University Press, United States\nImprint: Indiana University Press\nISBN-13: 9780253223647, 978-0253223647\nSynopsis\nWe live in an era marked by an accelerating rate of species death, but since the early days of the discipline, anthropology has contemplated the death of languages, cultural groups, and ways of life. The essays in this collection examine processes ofand our understanding ofextinction across various domains. The contributors argue that extinction events can be catalysts for new cultural, social, environmental, and technological developmentsthat extinction processes can, paradoxically, be productive as well as destructive. The essays consider a number of widely publicized cases: island.