Background
Bennett, John William was born on July 18, 1915 in Milwaukee. Son of William Homer and Elsa (Biersach) Bennett.
( A study of a rural region and plural society, this boo...)
A study of a rural region and plural society, this book is a distinctive contribution to anthropology, in that it brings the conceptual framework of that discipline to bear on a contemporary agrarian society and its historical development, rather than on peasant or tribal peoples; cultural ecology, in that it shows the nature of the adaptations of four distinctive social groups to the environment of the Canadian Great Plains; the study of social and economic change, as it describes cultural patterns and mechanisms that are relevant to agrarian development the world over; and North American studies, in as much as it deals with community life in the classic sequence of settlement of the Western Plains. The book is, focused throughout on the adaptation of human societies to their environment. Four groups are described: the Cree Indians, the aboriginal inhabitants of the area who have lost all organic relationship to natural resources and who have devised ingenious methods for manipulating the social environment; ranchers, whose specialized production is based upon resources used in their natural state; homestead farmers, whose maladjusted small-farm economy, after initial setbacks, achieved a degree of stability through interventions by government in their adaptations to nature and the market economy; and the Hutterian Brethren, whose adaptation consisted primarily of the introduction to the region of a new kind of social organization. This book combines the anthropological concept of culture and the framework of ecology in the study of a modern social milieu; it focuses on a region rather than on a single culture, people, or community, so that the interplay of several social groups can be appreciated; and it elaborates contemporary anthropological and ecological theory in a manner that makes it applicable to the understanding of contemporary agrarian societies. John W. Bennett was emeritus professor of anthropology at Washington University, St. Louis. He served as president of the American Ethnological Society and the Society for Applied Anthropology, and was a member of the editorial boards of the Annual Review of Anthropology and Reviews in Anthropology. Among his books are The Ecological Transition: Cultural Anthropology and Human Adaptation (1976, 2005), Classic Anthropology: Critical Essays, 1944-1996 (1997), and Human Ecology as Human Behavior: Essays in Environmental and Development Anthropology (1995).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006CP9TY/?tag=2022091-20
( Written during the height of the ecology movement, The ...)
Written during the height of the ecology movement, The Ecological Transition is a stunning interdisciplinary work. It combines anthropology, ecology, and sociology to formulate an understanding of cultural-environmental relationships. While anthropologists have been studying relationships between humans and the physical environment for a very long time, only in the last thirty years have questions inherent in these relationships broadened beyond description and classification. For example, the concept of environment has been extended beyond the physical into the social. Although anthropologists have adopted many of the concepts that Bennett develops in the book, he also feels that the central issues have never been addressed, either by anthropologists or by people in related disciplines. The most important of these, in Bennett's opinion, is the failure to incorporate a respect for the environmental in contemporary culture, which would allow making exceptions in certain human practices in order to protect the environment. His point in The Ecological Transition is that a basic cultural change in modern civilization is necessary to achieve this end. Both a theoretical and a practical work, The Ecological Transition emphasizes the relationships between human culture, the physical environment, technology, and social policy. The Ecological Transition is a challenging volume that makes us face the consequences of human behavior in the modern world: its effect on pollution, natural resources, agriculture, the economy, and population, to name just a few areas. The book remains a significant contribution to the discourse on social, economic, and environmental problems. While the book was first published in 1976, it still reads as a contemporary tract.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0080178677/?tag=2022091-20
( Human interaction with the natural environment has a du...)
Human interaction with the natural environment has a dual character. By turning increasing quantities of natural substances into physical resources, human beings might be said to have freed themselves from the constraints of low-technology survival pressures. However, the process has generated a new dependence on nature in the form of complex “socionatural systems,” as Bennett calls them, in which human society and behavior are so interlocked with the management of the environment that small changes in the systems can lead to disaster. Bennett’s essays cover a wide range: from the philosophy of environmentalism to the ecology of economic development; from the human impact on semi-arid lands to the ecology of Japanese forest management. This expanded paperback edition includes a new chapter on the role of anthropology in economic development. Bennett’s essays exhibit an underlying pessimism: if human behavior toward the physical environment is the distinctive cause of environmental abuse, then reform of current management practices offers only temporary relief; that is, conservationism, like democracy, must be continually reaffirmed. Clearly presented and free of jargon, Human Ecology as Human Behavior will be of interest to anthropologists, economists, and environmentalists.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560008490/?tag=2022091-20
( "Bennett has produced a personalised and user-friendly,...)
"Bennett has produced a personalised and user-friendly, if idiosyncratic, critique of North American anthropology that is surprisingly contemporary in framing and language. Readers will quibble with many interpretations, but Bennett's qualms about anthropolgy, past and present, deserve answers."-Anthropological Forum
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560003332/?tag=2022091-20
(Human interaction with the natural environment has a dual...)
Human interaction with the natural environment has a dual character. By turning increasing quantities of natural substances into physical resources, human beings might be said to have freed themselves from the constraints of low-technology survival pressures. However, the process has generated a new dependence on nature in the form of complex "socionatural systems," as Bennett calls them, in which...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016LLA3S/?tag=2022091-20
anthropologist educator researcher
Bennett, John William was born on July 18, 1915 in Milwaukee. Son of William Homer and Elsa (Biersach) Bennett.
Bachelor, Beloit College, 1937; Master of Arts, University of Chicago, 1942; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Chicago, 1945.
Professor anthropology, Ohio State University, Columbus, 1952-1959; professor anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, since 1959; department chairman anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, 1967-1970, 74-75; Distinguished anthropologist in residence, Washington University, St. Louis, since 1987. Professor Waseda U., Tokyo, 1962, U. Arizona, Tucson, 1982, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1978. Consultant United Nations Development Program, Indonesian Environment Project, 1982.
( A study of a rural region and plural society, this boo...)
( "Bennett has produced a personalised and user-friendly,...)
( Written during the height of the ecology movement, The ...)
( Written during the height of the ecology movement, The ...)
( Human interaction with the natural environment has a du...)
(Human interaction with the natural environment has a dual...)
(Softbound!)
Member Missouri committee United States Civil Rights Commission, St. Louis, 1970-1980. Fellow American Anthropological Association (member council 1973-1974, Distinguished Service award 1989). Member American Association for the Advancement of Science (section chairman 1984-1985), American Ethnological Society (president 1971-1972), Society for Applied Anthropology (president 1960-1961, program chairman 1962-1963).
Married Kathryn G. Goldsmith, December 7, 1942. Children: John M., James P.