The Give and Take of Sustainability

In this book, ethnographical and archaeological perspectives on tradeoffs help the reader to think about hard choices, and how to make better decisions today and tomorrow.

In this book, anthropologists and archaeologists explore cases from across the world to understand tradeoffs: can we meet the needs of the present without sacrificing the future? Do some people benefit while others bear the burden? These examples will teach readers how to better wrestle with their own hard choices.Sustainability strives to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future, but increasingly recognizes the tradeoffs among these many needs. Who benefits? Who bears the burden? How are these difficult decisions made? Are people aware of these hard choices? This timely volume brings the perspectives of ethnography and archaeology to bear on these questions by examining case studies from around the world. Written especially for this volume, the essays by an international team of scholars offer archaeological and ethnographic examples from the southwestern United States, the Maya region of Mexico, Africa, India, and the North Atlantic, among other regions. Collectively, they explore the benefits and consequences of growth and development, the social costs of ecological sustainability, and tensions between food and military security.