Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading!
Review: I am grateful to Mr. Bodley for this enlightening analysis of modern social problems (e.g. environmental deterioration, food scarcity, overpopulation, and gross inequality) viewed in light of modern knowledge of our small-scale, tribal forbears who have lived in relative harmony with their ecosystems and in a relatively egalitarian social structure for tens of thousands of years. In other words, the most dire social problems we face today are not inevitable consequences of human nature, but are cultural and can be changed. As such, we stand much to learn from these maligned "primitives."

Bodley might have taken his recommendations (saved for the last 15 pages) further than he did (e.g. an ideological repudiation of market principles & nation-states), but the information he gathers from the modern sciences & history makes the conclusion unavoidable that a radical socio-political restructuring is necessary in order for human survival (not merely civilization) to continue.