Springer Hunter-gatherers in a Changing World

This book compiles a collection of case studies analysing drivers of and responses to change amongst contemporary hunter-gatherers. Contemporary hunter-gatherers’ livelihoods are examined from perspectives ranging from historical legacy to environmental change, and from changes in national economic, political and legal systems to more broad-scale and universal notions of globalization and acculturation.  Far from the commonly held romantic view that hunter-gatherers continue to exist as isolated populations living a traditional lifestyle in harmony with the environment, contemporary hunter-gatherers – like many rural communities around the world - face a number of relatively new ecological and social challenges to which they are pressed to adapt. Contemporary hunter-gatherer societies are increasingly and rapidly being affected by Global Changes, related both to biophysical Earth systems (i.e., changes in climate, biodiversity and natural resources, and water availability), and to social systems (i.e. demographic transitions, sedentarisation, integration into the market economy, and all the socio-cultural change that these and other factors trigger). Chapter 10 of this book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. Review “The contents of the book are therefore quite broad and extensive, contemporary hunter-gatherer communities are extensively analyzed not only from the point of view of the historical but also the changing environment, national economies or legal systems. … the book describes the hunting-gathering community selectively on a global scale and, in particular, that it examines their current state or their development in the present. Individual chapters are very clearly structured, and have up-to-date citations.” (Zdeňka Nerudová, Anthropologie, Issue 3, 2017) From the Back Cover This book compiles a collection of case studies analysing drivers of and responses to change amongst contemporary hunter-gatherers. Contemporary hunter-gatherers’ livelihoods are examined from perspectives ranging from historical legacy to environmental change, and from changes in national economic, political and legal systems to more broad-scale and universal notions of globalization and acculturation.  Far from the commonly held romantic view that hunter-gatherers continue to exist as isolated populations living a traditional lifestyle in harmony with the environment, contemporary hunter-gatherers – like many rural communities around the world - face a number of relatively new ecological and social challenges to which they are pressed to adapt. Contemporary hunter-gatherer societies are increasingly and rapidly being affected by Global Changes, related both to biophysical Earth systems (i.e., changes in climate, biodiversity and natural resources, and water availability), and to social systems (i.e. demographic transitions, sedentarisation, integration into the market economy, and all the socio-cultural change that these and other factors trigger). About the Author Aili Pyhälä (PhD in Development Studies, 2003, University of East Anglia) is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Helsinki. After years of working and living with indigenous peoples in Amazonia and Africa and gaining direct experience working with local communities, participatory processes, and social and environmental justice, she now pursues her research interests in indigenous peoples’ knowledge and rights, alternative education, conservation psychology, global responsibility, human-nature relations, and cross-cultural notions of wellbeing. She has researched and worked with a number of sustainability and wellbeing indicators, and has close to 20 years of experience evaluating development cooperation projects worldwide.  A trained permaculturist, fluent in 8 languages, and with professional experience in 25 countries, she enjoys teaching, facilitating events, and promoting cross-cultural communication and exchange. Victo