Introduction: Anthropological Explorations of Incongruous Perspectives in the Economics of Ecology, Exchange, and Adaptation

This volume in the Research in Economic Anthropology series consists of 12 chapters arranged evenly in three parts. The first of these, in concentrating on ecology, partly serves to further explore the theme of the previous volume of REA: climate change. Part II spotlights exchange transactions and relations in a variety of situations and settings. Finally, chapters in Part III have a common concern with individual and group adaptations to various economic conditions of life. All of the chapters in the volume are connected by a shared underlying theme: the elucidation of differences in perspective between (and among) people and polities. As a whole, the volume suggests that local residents’ perceptions are paramount, and that these must be well understood and fully taken into account for thorough comprehension of complex socioeconomic and/or political issues, and for any hope of resolution and improvement. In other words, detailed microstudies of communities, societies, and cultures – in which anthropologists specialize – are invaluable for understanding and solving concrete, real-world problems. It goes without saying that the volume calls attention to the importance of the applied nature of anthropology.