Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia: Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillages

348 Pages·2013·1.849 MB·English

by  Joshua Lockyer, James R. Veteto

Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia
Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology
General Editor: Roy Ellen, FBA
Professor of Anthropology and Human Ecology, University of Kent at Canterbury
Interest in environmental anthropology has grown steadily in recent years, refl ecting na-
tional and international concern about the environment and developing research priori-
ties. 'Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology' is an international series based at the
University of Kent at Canterbury. It is a vehicle for publishing up-to-date monographs and
edited works on particular issues, themes, places or peoples which focus on the interrelation-
ship between society, culture and the environment.
Volume 1 Volume 10
The Logic of Environmentalism: Anthropology, Landscape, Process and Power: Re-Evaluating
Ecology and Postcoloniality Traditional Environmental Knowledge
Vassos Argyrou Edited by Sabrina Heckler
Volume 2 Volume 11
Conversations on the Beach: Fishermen’s Mobility and Migration In Indigenous
Knowledge, Metaphor and Environmental Amazonia: Contemporary Ethnoecological
Change in South India Perspectives
Götz Hoeppe Edited by Miguel N. Alexiades
Volume 3 Volume 12
Green Encounters: Shaping and Contesting Unveiling the Whale: Discourses on Whales
Environmentalism in Rural Costa Rica and Whaling
Luis A. Vivanco Arne Kalland
Volume 4 Volume 13
Local Science vs. Global Science: Approaches Virtualism, Governance and Practice: Vision
to Indigenous Knowledge in International and Execution in Environmental Conservation
Development Edited by James G. Carrier and Paige West
Edited by Paul Sillitoe
Volume 14
Volume 5 Ethnobotany in the New Europe: People, Health
Sustainability and Communities of Place and Wild Plant Resources
Edited by Carl A. Maida Edited by Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana,
Andrea Pieroni and Rajindra K. Puri
Volume 6
Modern Crises and Traditional Strategies: Local Volume 15
Ecological Knowledge in Island Southeast Asia Urban Pollution: Cultural Meanings, Social
Edited by Roy Ellen Practices
Edited by Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe
Volume 7
Traveling Cultures and Plants: The Ethnobiology Volume 16
and Ethnopharmacy of Human Migrations Weathering the World: Recovery in the Wake
Edited by Andrea Pieroni and of the Tsunami in a Tamil Fishing Village
Ina Vandebroek Frida Hastrup
Volume 8 Volume 17
Fishers And Scientists In Modern Turkey: The Environmental Anthropology Engaging
Management of Natural Resources, Knowledge Ecotopia: Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and
and Identity on the Eastern Black Sea Coast Ecovillages
Ståle Knudsen Edited by Joshua Lockyer and
James R. Veteto
Volume 9
Landscape Ethnoecology: Concepts of Biotic
and Physical Space
Edited by Leslie Main Johnson and
Eugene Hunn
Environmental Anthropology
Engaging Ecotopia
Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillages
Edited by
Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto
berghahn
N E W Y O R K (cid:127) O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First edition published in 2013 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
©2013 Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia : bioregionalism, permaculture,
and ecovillages / edited by Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto.
p. cm. — (Studies in environmental anthropology and ethnobiology ; v. 17)
ISBN 978-0-85745-879-7 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-85745-880-3
(institutional ebook)
1. Human ecology. 2. Ethnobiology. I. Lockyer, Joshua. II. Veteto, James R.
GF41.E418 2013
304.2—dc23
2012032900
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper
ISBN 978-0-85745-879-7 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-85745-880-3 (institutional ebook)
Joshua Lockyer would like to dedicate this book to all the people in Celo
Community, Earthaven Ecovillage, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and other
intentional communities who have inspired him with their true commit-
ment to fi nding a way to live more sustainably.
James R. Veteto would like to dedicate this book to his fi rst permaculture
mentor and good friend Joe Hollis and to the wonderful plant sanctuary,
Mountain Gardens, that he and his lively band of co-conspirators and
apprentices have created over the past forty years in Katuah bioregion,
USA.

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments x
Foreword xi
E.N. Anderson
Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia:
An Introduction 1
Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto
I. Bioregionalism
Chapter One. Growing a Life-Place Politics 35
Peter Berg
Chapter Two. On Bioregionalism and Watershed Consciousness 49
James J. Parsons
Chapter Three. Growing an Oak: An Ethnography of Ozark
Bioregionalism 58
Brian C. Campbell
Chapter Four. The Adirondack Semester: An Integrated Approach
to Cultivating Bioregional Knowledge and Consciousness 76
Steven M. Alexander and Baylor Johnson
Further Readings on Bioregionalism 92
II. Permaculture
Chapter Five. Environmental Anthropology Engaging Permaculture:
Moving Theory and Practice Toward Sustainability 95
James R. Veteto and Joshua Lockyer
Chapter Six. Weeds or Wisdom? Permaculture in the Eye of
the Beholder on Latvian Eco-Health Farms 113
Guntra A. Aistara
viii | Contents
Chapter Seven. Permaculture in the City: Ecological Habitus and
the Distributed Ecovillage 130
Randolph Haluza-DeLay and Ron Berezan
Chapter Eight. Culture, Permaculture, and Experimental
Anthropology in the Houston Foodshed 146
Bob Randall
Chapter Nine. Putting Permaculture Ethics to Work: Commons
Thinking, Progress, and Hope 164
Katy Fox
Chapter Ten. Permaculture in Practice: Low Impact Development
in Britain 180
Jenny Pickerill
Chapter Eleven. In Search of Global Sustainability and Justice:
How Permaculture Can Contribute to Development Policy 195
Aili Pyhälä
Further Readings on Permaculture 213
III. Ecovillages
Chapter Twelve. From Islands to Networks: The History and
Future of the Ecovillage Movement 217
Jonathan Dawson
Chapter Thirteen. Creating Alternative Political Ecologies through
the Construction of Ecovillages and Ecovillagers in Colombia 235
Brian J. Burke and Beatriz Arjona
Chapter Fourteen. Globalizing the Ecovillage Ideal: Networks of
Empowerment, Seeds of Hope 251
Todd LeVasseur
Chapter Fifteen. Academia’s Hidden Curriculum and Ecovillages
as Campuses for Sustainability Education 269
Daniel Greenberg
Chapter Sixteen. Ecovillages and Capitalism: Creating Sustainable
Communities within an Unsustainable Context 285
Ted Baker
Further Readings on Ecovillages 301
Notes on Contributors 303
Index 308
Illustrations
Figures
0.1. Ninth Continental Bioregional Congress, Earthaven Ecovillage,
Katuah bioregion, summer 2005. Photo by Joshua Lockyer. 10
0.2. Permaculture ethical and design principles. Image courtesy
of http://www.permacultureprinciples.com. 13
0.3. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage (northeastern Missouri)
community building. Photo by James R. Veteto. 18
3.1. Ozark Seasons drawing. Image courtesy of Denise Vaughn,
Ozark Area Community Congress. 65
4.1. Arcadia. Photo by Allan Alexander. 81
6.1. Diverse medicinal herbs and tree leaves drying for use in
herbal teas and sauna procedures. Photo by Guntra A. Aistara. 122
13.1. Ceremonial planting of organic rice, beans, sunfl owers, and
other seeds at the fourth “Llamado de la Montaña,” the
annual gathering of Colombian ecovillages and alternative
communities, in 2010. Photo courtesy of the Colombian
Ecovillage and Alternative Communities Network. 237
14.1. Participants in the Findhorn ecovillage training program,
February 2000. Photo by Todd LeVasseur. 251
15.1. Living laboratories for a sustainable future. Design by
Daniel Greenberg. 270
Tables
8.1. Urban Harvest function stacking and labor allocation by
program. Table by Bob Randall. 159
Maps
10.1. Map of low-impact developments in Britain. Map by
Jenny Pickerill. 182