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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Pollution & threats to the environment
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The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,079
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The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game (Paperback)
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Shepard's scattering of both familiar theory and wild surmise about
the hunter-gatherers of the Pleistocene period (with contemporary
implications) is bound to be ambushed by more rigorous scholars;
however, for the lenient layman, this attempt to set mankind on the
right path again is, if nothing else, a stimulating entertainment.
He investigates the ruinous effects of domestication - on plants,
animals and man, particularly the farmer/peasant societies from the
Sumerians on - arguing that our true nature and abilities, most
completely expressed in the days of the hunter-gatherers, have been
stultified. After a brief portrait of higher primate communities,
Shepard sketches the good life of the early hunters - "leisured,
generous, hospitable small groups" centered on the hunt, where
killing (for meat) was not extermination, where sex roles were
coequal, where change beyond satisfaction of basic needs was not
welcomed, where the old were respected, and where action evolved by
group consent. The author traces biohistorical rituals and behavior
patterns of each stage in individual (and group) life cycles, and
concludes that fulfillment (from stage to stage) is not occurring
today. Shephard's utopia: freeing of land via microbe-culture
(food); freeing of animals; concentrated populations; revamping of
education emphasizing the interrelationships of things rather than
ideas (words), etc. Certainly Shepard's view that man's biological
programming has been clanking out the same tune since the Ice Age
is controversial and his idealization of hunter culture is suspect.
But this is still - if you have the patience - as much fun as a
barrel of Naked Apes. (Kirkus Reviews)
In what may be his boldest and most controversial book, Paul
Shepard presents an account of human behavior and ecology in light
of our past. In it, he contends that agriculture is responsible for
our ecological decline and looks to the hunting and gathering
lifestyle as a model more closely in tune with our essential
nature. Shepard advocates affirming the profound and beautiful
nature of the hunter and gatherer, redefining agriculture and
combining technology with hunting and gathering to recover a
livable environment and peaceful society.
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