Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Anthropology and Economics: A Review
Chapter 1: Anthropology and the Cosmology of Modern Economics
Chapter 2: Wants, Needs, and the Question of Surplus versus
Wealth
Chapter 3: Complexity and Stability or Stagnation: Declining
Returns and the Business Cycle
Chapter 4: Wealth, Consumption, Quality of Life & Standard of
Living
Part II: Introduction to Hominid Economics
Chapter 6: Introduction
Chapter 7: Forest Fires, Origins, and Myths
Chapter 8: Traditional Peoples and Fire
Chapter 9: Climate and Fire, Assessing Time’s Arrow and the
Antiquity of Anthropogenic Fire
Chapter 10: Forest Management in Modern and Traditional Society
Chapter 11: The Degraded Environment and Homo Sapiens
Chapter 12: Co-evolutionary Processes & Environmental
Exploitation
Chapter 13: Makeup and Nature of Forests: Fire-adapted Species vs
‘Old Growth’
Chapter 14: Determining Fire History: Fire Scars, Fire Histories,
and Thermal Alteration
Chapter 15: Insects, Biomass Reduction, and Pesticides
Chapter 16: Conclusion: Forests and the Future Man
Part III: Cycles of Growth & Collapse versus the Possibility of
Sustainable Societies
Chapter 17: Introduction
Chapter 18: The Problem of Population & the Nature of Human
Society
Chapter 19: Consumerism and Sustainability: Japan as an Example
Chapter 20: The Evolution of Modern Japan and its
Transformation
Part IV: The Role of Ideology and Religious Precepts in the
Containment and Change of Society: A Modernist View
Chapter 21: The Credit Crisis of 2008 to 201?
Chapter 22: Ideology and Religious Precepts and Motivations: Why
People Work
Chapter 23: Fundamentalism versus Globalism
Part V: Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Niccolo Leo Caldararo, PhD, is a lecturer at San Francisco State University. He is also the owner, director, and founder of Conservation Art Service.
Caldararo begins to explore how human economic systems might have
changed and evolved during the last several million years. This is
an ambitious undertaking and he is to be congratulated for taking
it on . . . I found many of the ideas and pieces of evidence in the
book fascinating and thought-provoking. . . .[There is] a great
deal to admire: this is a big book about big ideas. I loved his
wide-ranging discussion, and I welcomed his argument that there is
nothing so different about modern and traditional human economic
systems that they cannot be studied within the same framework.
*Reviews in Anthropology*
In The Anthropology of Complex Economic Systems: Inequality,
Stability, and Cycles of Crisis, author Niccolo Caldararo rightly
points to our understanding and application of economics as the
source of our modern problems. Caldararo questions the assumptions
upon which modern economics is based and proposes that by exploring
economic anthropology one can better understand the basis of human
economic behavior and can be applied to guide our future economic
decisions and understanding. If one looks at early human
populations and their interaction with and influence upon the
environment and understands the challenges and decisions faced by
these populations, we may better understand our modern economic
behavior that may help uncover better solutions to present day
issues and problems. A substantial part of the book is dedicated to
establishing a model of the evolution of human economies and he
strongly bases this model within human cultural history and its
effects on the environment. He appeals to his readers to use the
understanding of economic anthropology in explaining modern
economic behavior and events. This well-composed book will be a
valuable read not only for stimulating academic debate and further
study but also for environmentalists, activists, and economists as
we continue to address the serious problems facing our modern
civilization.
*Daniel Harder, Santa Cruz Natural History Museum*
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