For more information, please contact Terry Rahbek-Nielsen, ttrahbek@ucalgary.ca

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Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Human Ecology in the Arctic
By: Karim-Aly S. Kassam
University of Calgary Press

In Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Human Ecology in the Arctic, author Karim-Aly Kassam positions the Arctic and sub-Arctic as a homeland rather than simply a frontier for resource exploitation. Kassam aims to empirically and theoretically illustrate the synthesis between the cultural and biological, using human ecology as a conceptual and analytical lens. Drawing on research carried out in partnership with indigenous northern communities, three case studies illustrate that subsistence hunting and gathering are not relics of an earlier era, but rather remain essential to both cultural diversity and human survival.

The book deals with contemporary issues such as climate change, indigenous peoples, and the impact of natural resource extraction. It is a narrative of community-based research, in the service of the communities for the benefit of the communities. It provides resource-based industry, policy makers, and students with an alternative way of looking at indigenous communities and addressing concerns of socio-economic development and the environment.

Karim-Aly Kassam has worked with the peoples of the Arctic for over fifteen years. His research focuses on the complex connectivity of human and environmental relations, addressing indigenous ways of knowing, sustainable development, and climate change. In partnership with indigenous communities, he has conducted research in the Alaskan, Canadian, and Russian Arctic and sub-Arctic; the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan and Tajikistan; and the forests in the south of India. Kassam is International Associate Professor of Environmental and Indigenous Studies at Cornell University.

For further information, please go to:
http://www.uofcpress.com/1-55238/978-1-55238-253-0.html.

Or contact:
Terry Rahbek-Nielsen
Email: ttrahbek@ucalgary.ca