Ecology of Practice: Studies of Food Crop Production in Sub-Saharan West Africa (Food & Nutrition in History & Anthropology)

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. First Published in 1998. The study of the origin, development and diversity of the human diet is emerging as a coherent field that offers a much-needed integrative framework for our contemporary knowledge of the ecology of food and nutrition. This authoritative series of monographs and symposia volumes on the history and anthropology of food and nutrition is designed to address this need by providing integrative approaches to the study of various problems within the human food chain. As a series, it offers many unique opportunities for a wide range of scientists, scholars and other professionals representing anthropology, archaeology, food history, economics, agriculture, folklore, nutrition, medicine, pharmacology, public health and public policy to exchange important new knowledge, discoveries and methods involved in the study of all aspects of human food ways. Addressing the topic of hunger and food security in Western Africa, the contributing authors to this volume are anthropologists who seek to understand the sociocultural factors involved in the environmental and economic aspects of food production. Case studies reveal how farmers are responding. This introduction has two aims: to preview the chapters that follow and to propose and briefly outline a practice perspective in ecological anthropology.