Review : Ecomystics

Cultural ecology is all the rage. It comes in several forms. For example,
drugs companies are hiring “Ethnobotanists” to sniff out the medicinal secrets
of rainforest dwellers. Or, as here, apologists for the role of native religions
in managing natural resources. E. N. Anderson’s Ecologies of the Heart (Oxford
University Press, $25/£18.99, available in UK in June, ISBN 0 19
509010 1) says mystics beat scientists because they see more clearly and care
more.