100th Monkey Books

Ecological Value



Buying a Book?





Altars of Unhewn Stone: Science and the Earth
Wes Jackson (1987) 158pages

Somewhere in the midst of this thinking and research the scripture in Exodus 20:25, from which the title of this book came, took on a deeper meaning for us. Right after Moses had delivered the Ten Commandments, he received instructions to build an altar of unhewn stone "for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." This scripture must mean that we are to be more mindful of the creation, more mindful of the original materials of the universe than of the artist. The altar was to stand as a reminder that we could not improve on the timeless purpose of the original material. I don't think such a scripture means that we are never to shape the earth with our art or our science, but that the scientist and the artist must remain subordinate to the larger Creation, The chances of disrupting nature's patterns, upon which we are dependent, are greatly reduced if we assume this modest posture...These essays, then, are an attempt to understand the requirements of a science to be pursued as though its original material is more important than the work of the scientists who are shaping that material. What if we researched and taught as though we believed that the wisdom of nature is more important, in the long run, than the cleverness of science? What if we really did regard our domestic plants and animals more as the relatives of wild things than as our property? What if we acknowledged straight out that there is more to be discovered than invented? Of course we must have both discovery and invention, but what if we changed the emphasis? - from the author's Introduction ( North Point Press)



Becoming Native to This Place
Wes Jackson (1994) 121pages

This book is dedicated to the idea that the majority of solutions to both global and local problems must take place at the level of the expanded tribe, what civilization calls community). In effect, we will be required) to become native to our little places) if we are to become native to this place), this continent...To a large extent, this book is a challenge to the universities to stop and think what they are doing with the young men and women they are supposed to be preparing for the future...what if the universities were to ask seriously what it would mean to have as our national goal becoming native in this place, this continent? We are unlikely to achieve anything close to sustainability in any area unless we work for the broader goal of becoming native in the modern world, and that means becoming native to our places in a coherent community that is in turn embedded in the ecological realities of its surrounding landscape. - from the author's Prologue (Counterpoint)



Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story
Gary Paul Nablan (1997) 339pages US$ C$

Many ecologists write of nature, treating it as an object separate from the world of people, Gary Paul Nabhan writes in nature, finding relevance to human existence in the life of the wild. While studying population maps with a colleague at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Nabhan recognized that locations with stable human populations sustain native wildlife more easily over the long term, while communities experiencing massive fluctuations in a population generate more endangered species. Blurring the distinction between nature and nurture , Nabhan examines relationships among cultural diversity, community stability, and conservation of biological diversity in natural habitats. A mosaic of essays and stories, Cultures of Habitat is a celebration of the vital connections between soul and space. (Counterpoint)



The Dream of the Earth
Thomas Berry (1988/1990)

For peoples, generally, their story of the universe and the human role in the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value...The deepest crises experienced by any society are those moments of change when the story becomes inadequate for meeting the survival demands of a present situation....The issue now is of a much greater order of magnitude, for we have changed in a deleterious manner not simply the structure and functioning of human society: we have changed the very chemistry of the planet, we have altered the biosystems, we have changed the topography and even the geological structure of the planet, structures and functions that have taken hundreds of millions and billions of years to bring into existence. Such an order of change in its nature and in its order of magnitude has never before entered either into earth history or into human consciousness. The position assumed in these essays is that such a new age and such a historical vision do exist, that a period of mutually enhancing human-earth relationships is being established...This context must be kept in mind in reading these essays - on creative energy, technology, ecology, economics, education, spirituality, patriarchy, bioregionalism, the Hudson River Valley, the Indian future, and peace - for while each of the essays concerns a particular phase of this new historical vision, each also carries the full force of the larger pattern of historical interpretation that I am suggesting. -from the author's Introduction (Sierra Club Books)



The Forsaken Garden: Four Conversations on the Deep Meaning of Environmental Illness
Nancy Ryley (1998) 297pages

When documentary filmmaker Nancy Ryler became ill, few people had heard of "environmental illness." Her symptoms - fatigue, depression, hypersensitivity to foods and chemicals - puzzled doctors and resisted treatment. Her illness, Nancy came to realize, is a reflection of the soul sickness of the planet. On a quest for healing for herself and for the Earth, Nancy talked in depth with four of the wisest elders we have: Laurens van der Post, conservationist and author; Marion Woodman, Jungian analyst; Ross Woodman, professor, expert in Blake and the Romantics; and Thomas Berry, theologian and cultural historian. These eloquent conversations and the answers Nancy found will surprise you, and make you think, and likely move you to the core...To "forsake the garden" is not only to forfeit our own souls, but to forsake life itself. If we are to survive, a return to intimacy with the Earth and its creatures and to a celebration of the cosmos beyond, is imperative. - from the Introduction by Nancy Ryley (Quest Books)



The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day
Third edition expanded and updated with746 illustrations and six maps.
Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe (1975/1993) 408pages

To qualify as a "landscape of man", an environment must be deliberately shaped at a specific time. Its form will be conditioned by the civilization that produced it, and therefore to explain it fully one has to go not only to history but to philosophy and religion. Taking twenty-eight "cultures" (somewhat in the manner of Arnold Toynbee), the authors first summarize the social and intellectual background, and then describe how this expressed itself in terms of landscape, and finally demonstrate their case in a series of picture-spreads showing what actually happened. The ground covered includes ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, the Muslim world, medieval Europe, India, China, Japan, pre-Columbian America and the post Renaissance West in all its phases. The last section, about a fifth of the whole, is devoted to planning since 1945. (Thames & Hudson)


Browse Selected Books: 100th MONKEY Stable
Go Back to Table of Contents: 100th MONKEY OASIS