Abstract
In Tending the Wild, author M. Kat Anderson draws critical attention to two major misconceptions regarding the ecological history of California. The first misconception is that the indigenous peoples of California were hunter-gatherers who did not engage in organized horticulture, agriculture, or other forms of plant propagation and management for subsistence. The second pertains to the popular ideology surrounding the environmental preservation movement, which called for the separation of humans and nature as a means to protect pristine wild habitats and implied that nature was not “natural” if humans intervened. By way of a comprehensive review of the literature on the history of human-environment interchanges in California, Anderson elucidates the indelible imprint of Native American ecological knowledge on landscapes that early preservationists considered “wilderness.” Exploration of indigenous Native American knowledge and practices of the past demonstrate how indigenous peoples of California were “active agents of environmental change and stewardship…” (p. 2).
The book opens with a review of key historical events that transformed Californian landscapes. Anderson draws upon an impressive array of sources such as historical archives, narratives, and scholarly research to contextualize environmental transformation through time. Several chapters are devoted to deeper investigation of indigenous principles of environmental management and the cultural significance of California's vast flora and fauna. The author is careful to distinguish between the unique cultural groups of California while highlighting regional similarities in beliefs of environmental stewardship, reciprocity, and sustainability.
One major contribution of this text is the author's deconstruction of the term “wilderness.” This point is particularly germane to environmental studies in California, a state that has been transformed by humans over thousands of years. Native American plant propagation and harvesting practices did not fall neatly into mutually exclusive categories such as collecting or cultivating but actually incorporated an array of subsistence techniques that were appropriate to the needs of particular species, habitats, and ecotypes. So-called “wild” plants were routinely managed with fire, seed collection, weeding, and pruning. The author also raises important questions regarding scientific assumptions made about the natural history of indigenous Californian plant species, especially those that do not account for the role of Native Americans in their evolution and distribution.
The text makes an enormous contribution to the literature on political ecology and Native American studies by providing a poignant account of the horrific extermination of indigenous peoples along with wholesale destruction of natural resources during various periods of conquest and colonization. At the same time, the author avoids the pitfall of romanticizing Native American culture by emphasizing the evolutionary significance of traditional land management practices. Readers will appreciate the closing chapters of the book, which address the challenges facing Native American groups today as they attempt to revive and preserve their cultural heritages. Tending the Wild compels the integration of indigenous environmental knowledge into contemporary strategies of natural resources management in California.
The expansive scope of the text is impressive. Much of it is written with anecdotes and stories to illustrate key points. It is composed in a highly readable prose, which should appeal to scholars and lay nature enthusiasts alike. Anderson's book is comprehensive and addresses issues that are relevant to disciplines such as ethnobiology, environmental studies, Native American studies, and cultural anthropology. It provides rich reference to a vast literature related to the social and historical ecology of California.