Kayapó Ethnoecology and Culture

Book excerpt: Darrell A Posey died in March 2001 after a long and distinguished career in anthropology and ecology. Kayapó Ethnoecology and Culture presents a selection of his writings that result from 25 years of work with the Kayapó Indians of the Amazon Basin. These writings describe the dispersal of the Kayapó sub-groups and explain how with this diaspora useful biological species and natural resource management strategies also spread. However the Kayapó are threatened with extinction like many of the inhabitants of the Amazon basin. The author is adamant that it is no longer satisfactory for scientists to just do 'good science'. They are are increasingly asked and morally obliged to become involved in political action to protect the peoples they study.