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Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology General Editor: Roy Ellen, FBA Professor of Anthropology and Human Ecology, University of Kent at Canterbury Interest in environmental anthropology has grown steadily in recent years, refl ecting na- tional and international concern about the environment and developing research priori- ties. 'Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology' is an international series based at the University of Kent at Canterbury. It is a vehicle for publishing up-to-date monographs and edited works on particular issues, themes, places or peoples which focus on the interrelation- ship between society, culture and the environment. Volume 1 Volume 10 The Logic of Environmentalism: Anthropology, Landscape, Process and Power: Re-Evaluating Ecology and Postcoloniality Traditional Environmental Knowledge Vassos Argyrou Edited by Sabrina Heckler Volume 2 Volume 11 Conversations on the Beach: Fishermen’s Mobility and Migration In Indigenous Knowledge, Metaphor and Environmental Amazonia: Contemporary Ethnoecological Change in South India Perspectives Götz Hoeppe Edited by Miguel N. Alexiades Volume 3 Volume 12 Green Encounters: Shaping and Contesting Unveiling the Whale: Discourses on Whales Environmentalism in Rural Costa Rica and Whaling Luis A. Vivanco Arne Kalland Volume 4 Volume 13 Local Science vs. Global Science: Approaches Virtualism, Governance and Practice: Vision to Indigenous Knowledge in International and Execution in Environmental Conservation Development Edited by James G. Carrier and Paige West Edited by Paul Sillitoe Volume 14 Volume 5 Ethnobotany in the New Europe: People, Health Sustainability and Communities of Place and Wild Plant Resources Edited by Carl A. Maida Edited by Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana, Andrea Pieroni and Rajindra K. Puri Volume 6 Modern Crises and Traditional Strategies: Local Volume 15 Ecological Knowledge in Island Southeast Asia Urban Pollution: Cultural Meanings, Social Edited by Roy Ellen Practices Edited by Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe Volume 7 Traveling Cultures and Plants: The Ethnobiology Volume 16 and Ethnopharmacy of Human Migrations Weathering the World: Recovery in the Wake Edited by Andrea Pieroni and of the Tsunami in a Tamil Fishing Village Ina Vandebroek Frida Hastrup Volume 8 Volume 17 Fishers And Scientists In Modern Turkey: The Environmental Anthropology Engaging Management of Natural Resources, Knowledge Ecotopia: Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and and Identity on the Eastern Black Sea Coast Ecovillages Ståle Knudsen Edited by Joshua Lockyer and Volume 9 James R. Veteto Landscape Ethnoecology: Concepts of Biotic and Physical Space Edited by Leslie Main Johnson and Eugene Hunn Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillages Edited by Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto berghahn N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D www.berghahnbooks.com First edition published in 2013 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2013 Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia : bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages / edited by Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto. p. cm. — (Studies in environmental anthropology and ethnobiology ; v. 17) ISBN 978-0-85745-879-7 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-85745-880-3 (institutional ebook) 1. Human ecology. 2. Ethnobiology. I. Lockyer, Joshua. II. Veteto, James R. GF41.E418 2013 304.2—dc23 2012032900 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed in the United States on acid-free paper ISBN 978-0-85745-879-7 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-85745-880-3 (institutional ebook) Joshua Lockyer would like to dedicate this book to all the people in Celo Community, Earthaven Ecovillage, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and other intentional communities who have inspired him with their true commit- ment to fi nding a way to live more sustainably. James R. Veteto would like to dedicate this book to his fi rst permaculture mentor and good friend Joe Hollis and to the wonderful plant sanctuary, Mountain Gardens, that he and his lively band of co-conspirators and apprentices have created over the past forty years in Katuah bioregion, USA. Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments x Foreword xi E.N. Anderson Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia: An Introduction 1 Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto I. Bioregionalism Chapter One. Growing a Life-Place Politics 35 Peter Berg Chapter Two. On Bioregionalism and Watershed Consciousness 49 James J. Parsons Chapter Three. Growing an Oak: An Ethnography of Ozark Bioregionalism 58 Brian C. Campbell Chapter Four. The Adirondack Semester: An Integrated Approach to Cultivating Bioregional Knowledge and Consciousness 76 Steven M. Alexander and Baylor Johnson Further Readings on Bioregionalism 92 II. Permaculture Chapter Five. Environmental Anthropology Engaging Permaculture: Moving Theory and Practice Toward Sustainability 95 James R. Veteto and Joshua Lockyer Chapter Six. Weeds or Wisdom? Permaculture in the Eye of the Beholder on Latvian Eco-Health Farms 113 Guntra A. Aistara viii | Contents Chapter Seven. Permaculture in the City: Ecological Habitus and the Distributed Ecovillage 130 Randolph Haluza-DeLay and Ron Berezan Chapter Eight. Culture, Permaculture, and Experimental Anthropology in the Houston Foodshed 146 Bob Randall Chapter Nine. Putting Permaculture Ethics to Work: Commons Thinking, Progress, and Hope 164 Katy Fox Chapter Ten. Permaculture in Practice: Low Impact Development in Britain 180 Jenny Pickerill Chapter Eleven. In Search of Global Sustainability and Justice: How Permaculture Can Contribute to Development Policy 195 Aili Pyhälä Further Readings on Permaculture 213 III. Ecovillages Chapter Twelve. From Islands to Networks: The History and Future of the Ecovillage Movement 217 Jonathan Dawson Chapter Thirteen. Creating Alternative Political Ecologies through the Construction of Ecovillages and Ecovillagers in Colombia 235 Brian J. Burke and Beatriz Arjona Chapter Fourteen. Globalizing the Ecovillage Ideal: Networks of Empowerment, Seeds of Hope 251 Todd LeVasseur Chapter Fifteen. Academia’s Hidden Curriculum and Ecovillages as Campuses for Sustainability Education 269 Daniel Greenberg Chapter Sixteen. Ecovillages and Capitalism: Creating Sustainable Communities within an Unsustainable Context 285 Ted Baker Further Readings on Ecovillages 301 Notes on Contributors 303 Index 308 Illustrations Figures 0.1. Ninth Continental Bioregional Congress, Earthaven Ecovillage, Katuah bioregion, summer 2005. Photo by Joshua Lockyer. 10 0.2. Permaculture ethical and design principles. Image courtesy of http://www.permacultureprinciples.com. 13 0.3. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage (northeastern Missouri) community building. Photo by James R. Veteto. 18 3.1. Ozark Seasons drawing. Image courtesy of Denise Vaughn, Ozark Area Community Congress. 65 4.1. Arcadia. Photo by Allan Alexander. 81 6.1. Diverse medicinal herbs and tree leaves drying for use in herbal teas and sauna procedures. Photo by Guntra A. Aistara. 122 13.1. Ceremonial planting of organic rice, beans, sunfl owers, and other seeds at the fourth “Llamado de la Montaña,” the annual gathering of Colombian ecovillages and alternative communities, in 2010. Photo courtesy of the Colombian Ecovillage and Alternative Communities Network. 237 14.1. Participants in the Findhorn ecovillage training program, February 2000. Photo by Todd LeVasseur. 251 15.1. Living laboratories for a sustainable future. Design by Daniel Greenberg. 270 Tables 8.1. Urban Harvest function stacking and labor allocation by program. Table by Bob Randall. 159 Maps 10.1. Map of low-impact developments in Britain. Map by Jenny Pickerill. 182 Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the Department of Anthropology and the Environmental Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis, where a postdoctoral fellowship provided time and resources to envision and germinate this volume. My colleagues in the Department of Behav- ioral Sciences at Arkansas Tech University provided a supportive environ- ment in which to bring the book to fruition and continue to incorporate the bioregional vision into teaching, learning, and research. Some of the chapters were presented at a panel at the 2010 American Anthropological Association annual meetings in New Orleans entitled “Circulating Eco- topian Imaginaries.” Three anonymous reviewers provided valuable and encouraging feedback on the manuscript. Brian Burke and Geoff Kelley assisted with especially insightful comments on a draft of the introduc- tion. Last but certainly not least, my friend and colleague Jim Veteto was, once again, a superlative co-conspirator. —Joshua Lockyer I would like to thank all of the daring cultural revolutionaries of the 1960s (and before) who set ecotopian thinking into motion. My life and think- ing in the domains that are the subject of this book have been enriched by the work of Tim Ingold, Arturo Escobar, David Graeber, Robert Rhoades, Harold Conklin, Virginia Nazarea, Gary Paul Nabhan, Julian Steward, E. N. Anderson,