"One day while studying population maps with a colleague at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Nabhan recognized a surprising correlation between upheavals in human communities and the incidence of endangered species. Where massive in-migrations and exoduses were taking place, more plants and animals had become endangered. Locations with stable human populations sustained native wildlife more easily over the long term." "This revelation prompted Nabhan to spend the next three years studying relationships among cultural diversity, community stability, and conservation of biological diversity in natural habitats. He concentrated on "cultures of habitat," human communities with long histories of interacting with one particular kind of terrain and its wildlife." "Here the author of The Desert Smells Like Rain has combined the eye of an ethnobiologist with chronicles from "the Far Outside," that realm in which diverse natural habitats and indigenous cultures coexist. The result is a mosaic of essays that celebrates the vital connections between soul and space."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [321]-338).

Prologue: Cultures of Habitat Finding Ourselves in the Far Outside Pledging Allegiance to All Sorts of Diversity Missing the Boat: Why Cultural Diversity Didn't Make It onto the Ark Sierra Madre Upshot: Ecological and Agricultural Health Children in Touch, Creatures in Story Making Places Close to Home Where the Soul Can Fly Growing Up Othered: An Arab-American Childhood Behind the Zipper: Discovering the Diversity around Us Finding the Wild Thread: The Evolution of a Naturalist Hummingbirds and Human Aggression Searching for Lost Places Cultural Parallax: The Wilderness Concept in Crisis

When the Spring of Animal Dreams Runs Dry Killer, Fire, and the Aboriginal Way Diabetes, Diet, and Native American Foraging Traditions Let Us Now Praise Native Crops: An American Cornucopia Harvest Time: Agricultural Change on the Northern Plains Tequila Hangovers and the Mescal Monoculture Blues Hornworm's Home Ground: Conserving Interactions The Parable of the Poppy and the Bee The Pollinator and the Predator: Conservation That Zoos Can't Do Why Chiles Are Hot: Seed Dispersal and Plant Survival Where Creatures and Cultures Know No Boundaries Showdown in the Rain Forest Epilogue: Restorying the Sonorous Landscape.