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Charting the political, social, and environmental history of efforts to conserve crop diversity. Many people worry that we're losing genetic diversity in the foods we eat. Over the past century, crop varieties standardized for industrial agriculture have increasingly dominated farm fields. Concerned about what this transition means for the future of food, scientists, farmers, and eaters have sought to protect fruits, grains, and vegetables they consider endangered. They have organized high-tech genebanks and heritage seed swaps. They have combed fields for ancient landraces and sought farmers growing Indigenous varieties. Behind this widespread concern for the loss of plant diversity lies another extinction narrative that concerns the survival of farmers themselves, a story that is often obscured by urgent calls to collect and preserve. Endangered Maize draws on the rich history of corn in Mexico and the United States to uncover this hidden narrative and show how it shaped the conservation strategies adopted by scientists, states, and citizens.   In Endangered Maize, historian Helen Anne Curry investigates more than a hundred years of agriculture and conservation practices to understand the tasks that farmers and researchers have considered essential to maintaining crop diversity. Through the contours of efforts to preserve diversity in one of the world's most important crops, Curry reveals how those who sought to protect native, traditional, and heritage crops forged their methods around the expectation that social, political, and economic transformations would eliminate diverse communities and cultures. In this fascinating study of how cultural narratives shape science, Curry argues for new understandings of endangerment and alternative strategies to protect and preserve crop diversity.

Corn --- Agrobiodiversity conservation --- History. --- agricultural. --- agriculture. --- biodiversity. --- books by science historians. --- conservation efforts. --- corn cultivation. --- crop science. --- cultural. --- history. --- human diversity. --- indigenous. --- latin america. --- latin american. --- science history. --- seed banks and exchanges.

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Landscape architecture --- Wildlife conservation --- Botanical gardens --- Conservation --- Botanic gardens --- Gardens --- Research institutes --- Arboretums --- Horticultural service industry --- Landscape gardening --- Landscaping industry --- endangered species --- plant biodiversity --- conservation efforts --- reproductive biology --- threatened animals and plants --- zoological and botanical gardens --- Wildlife conservation. --- Botanical gardens. --- Animal conservation --- Animals --- Conservation of wildlife --- Preservation of wildlife --- Protection of wildlife --- Species conservation --- Species preservation --- Species protection --- Wildlife preservation --- Wildlife protection --- Wildlife resources conservation --- Wildlife resources preservation --- Wildlife resources protection --- Conservation of natural resources --- Nature conservation --- Endangered species --- Wildlife management

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John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today-that much of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts. M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.

Indians of North America --- Human ecology --- Nature --- Ecology --- Environment, Human --- Human beings --- Human environment --- Ecological engineering --- Human geography --- American aborigines --- American Indians --- First Nations (North America) --- Indians of the United States --- Indigenous peoples --- Native Americans --- North American Indians --- Agriculture --- History. --- Effect of human beings on --- Social aspects --- Effect of environment on --- Culture --- Ethnology --- History --- Effect of human beings on&delete& --- E-books --- american history. --- california. --- conservation efforts. --- environmental change. --- harvesting. --- historical sources. --- indigenous peoples. --- living sustainably. --- native americans. --- native cultures. --- native knowledge. --- native land management. --- native tribes. --- natural resources. --- natural settings. --- sierra miwok. --- sowing. --- tilling. --- traditional ecological knowledge. --- united states of america. --- valley yokuts.