The Social Causes of Environmental Destruction in Latin America
Michael Painter and William H. Durham, eds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.

Reviewed by Kristoffer E. Alstatt, anthropology graduate student, University of Texas at San Antonio.
 
    This edited volume is the first from the U of M Pressâs Linking Levels of Analysis series. In this volume, the authors are attempting to link larger-scale systems to local-level social systems in regards to environmental issues. Of primary importance for the authors is to examine the ways in which these levels interact with each other and, in turn, affect environmental issues such as deforestation, and bring about inequalities of land distribution and control. In addition, the authors are making a case for a political-ecology approach to environmental issues in anthropology. This is because, in the view of editors Michael Painter and William Durham, previous explorations of environmental topics in anthropology (such as cultural ecology, systems ecology, and cultural materialism), while useful, have been inadequate and ended up painting overly simplistic, incomplete pictures of an immensely broad and complex problem.

    This book is primarily situated along theoretical lines and issues that relate to power, environment, and political concerns. In the introduction, Michael Painter makes the claim that ãone reason . . . anthropologists do not receive the attention we think we deserve is that discussions of anthropological theory have often denied or overlooked the relationship between political interests and scholarly theory, despite the strong relationship that has existed between the two in important areas of anthropological researchä (p. 75). Furthermore, Painter suggests that previous attempts at exploring environmental issues in anthropological research have been marked by a fear among researchers of being labeled as environmental determinists. As a result, the interactions between people and their environments have generally, with a few notable exceptions, been given only a ãpassive Îpossibilistâ roleä in anthropological analyses of this issue.

    The volume is broken into two main parts. The first, containing contributions by Marc Edelman, Susan Stonich, and Norman Schwartz, is an examination of issues relating to environmental destruction in Central America. Edelman approaches this issue by reexamining the so-called ãhamburger thesis,ä relating to beef cattle production in Central American counties, with a particular interest on Costa Rica. Susan Stonich, in attempting to widen the scope of political ecology, examines the case of impoverishment in rural Honduras. Finally, Norman Schwartz, a renowned expert on environmental issues in Guatemalaâs Petén, explores colonization and the inequalities of land holdings in that region.

    The second part examines South American problems relating to this topic and is composed of works by Michael Painter, James Jones, and Eduardo Bedoya Garland. In examining these areas, the authors take a top-down approach by relating larger political and economic trends to local expressions. Michael Painter looks at the problem of land degradation in Bolivia, while further cementing his belief that social inequality is the primary force driving environmental destruction in Latin American counties. Also examining Bolivia is James Jones. Jones complements Painterâs discussion by critically examining matters of environmental destruction in relation to ethnic discrimination and international aid programs. Finally, Eduardo Bedoya Garland links deforestation concerns in the Amazonian basin of Peru to problems that exist between native inhabitants and recent colonists.
 
    This volume is an important examination of environmental issues from an approach that goes beyond that of the standard either/or (either environmental or social or political or economic) arguments that have peppered the anthropological literature for much of the last 50 years. The overriding theme that Painter and Durham stress is the need to adopt a political-ecology approach to issues in environmental anthropology. Heavily situated from the political-ecology approach and building upon Marxist principals, the authors argue that ãrelations between people with conflicting and unequal claims to land are primarily responsible for environmental destruction in Latin Americaä (p. 15).
 
    An underlying conclusion that is made in this volume, which arises from the application of political ecology, is the inherent problems that exist within the capitalist system that inevitably lead to the types of inequalities that are presented in these articles. With individual concerns for profit-and-power outweighing the long term success of societies and environments, the worldwide, market-driven economy brings about increasingly centralized and monopolized ownership of land, resources, money, and, ultimately, power.
 
    In this volume, the authorsâ effectively demonstrate the impacts that social, political, and economic inequalities have on local-level systems.  To a lesser extent, they point out where one should be looking in order to change these unequal relations. They paint a complex picture of problems that have led to, and continue to, characterize these types of inequalities. However, no in-depth explorations of practical solutions are provided. Although the primary goal of this volume is to demonstrate the causes of environmental destruction (and these points are well made), it would have provided more balance to the collection if there were to be at least one full article that critically examined a specific case regarding solutions. Whether or not that case was successful or unsuccessful, it still would have allowed the authors to more clearly lay out their vision for how endeavors such as these should proceed, as well as underscore how they have failed in the past. This is a point that Durham concedes when, in the conclusion he states that ãa key implication of these papers is that further research is warranted both to expand the theoretical framework of political ecology and to test its applicability in particular contextsä (p. 262).

    There exists no easy solution and no one aspect of the equation can be changed that will subsequently fix the remaining problems. Due to this, the few solutions that the authors do mention remain broad reaching and complex. In part this is because the paradigm of political ecology from which they are operating is still not fully articulated in an anthropological context. It is with some optimism that the authors note the increased application of political ecology since the 1980s. While admiring the attempts of earlier work from the 1960s and 1970s undertaken by such scholars as Clifford Geertz, John Cole, and Eric Wolf, Durham ultimately concludes that ãthese few case studies fell short of providing analytic tools worthy of a general new approachä (p. 249). In summary, because of its examination of power differentials, as well as its clear and systematic presentation on the introduction of political ecology to anthropology, this volume will prove beneficial for anthropologists and equally useful for geographers, political scientists, environmental scientists, ecologists, and economists alike.