The Earth's Blanket: Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living

The anthropologist author's deep appreciation of and respect for indigenous people's knowledge shines through this entire account. In addition to providing numerous accounts of specific applications of plant, animal and mineral knowledge as embodied in traditional stories, she does not shrink from demonstrating how the attitudes embodied in them have wide application in trying to establish a sustainable human society worldwide. This book could easily be used in university courses on systems design as well as environmental studies and anthropology. Highly recommended!

Anyone who has ever read Dr Turner's work will realize how thorough she is. This book is a departure from her usual style, however. Rather than being a collection of plants and in-depth analysis of their uses by North America's First Nations, The Earth's Blanket casts a much wider net, interpreting her decades of travel and research, as they apply to the concept that "we are all one...". It is an extraordinary work of a great Canadian ecological thinker.