Divided Peoples: Policy, Activism, and Indigenous Identities on the U.S.‐Mexico Border by Christina Leza Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2019. 223 pp.

Abstract

Let's start with the contested term "Anthropocene": contested because of its association with overzealous rewilding schemes, deprioritizing of intact ecosystems, potentially enabling the use of "degraded" environments, and creating public pessimism. Or not-let's just explore 294 pages of catastrophes in primate conservation.The editors clearly want to ensure the continued existence of the species that they study by moving from a focus on behavioral ecology to multidisciplinary teams working at the human/nonhuman interface (using Fuentes's constructs of humans and primates as "co-resident in ecological and social landscapes"). This is a passionate perspective, but do we have an either/or problem of "threats vs. theory"? Malone (chapter 2) discusses the "dynamics of shared human-gibbon spaces." While I'd be the first to recognize that "sharing space" is necessary for creating coexistence, when humans build places of worship, log, and extract honey, this is commercialization, not sharing. As Fernandez shows for the endemic Tanzanian Sanje mangabey (chapter 3), understanding the factors influencing female mangabey reproductive success contributes to long-term population viability. Even here, however, economic arguments (primates as a long-term commoditized resource) come into play. Can one separate capitalism from conservation? The ecotourism arguments now appear to be hollow: it has long been challenged for a lack of environmental sustainability and vulnerablity to terrorist threats, civil wars, or diseases such as MERS and Ebola before COVID-19 ended tourism. And surely the editors should have caught the use of the term "human-wildlife conflict." Conflict is what happens between humans, not between baboons, elephants, and farmers. The animals are merely foragers on something new in their habitats. We would do far better calling these conservation conflicts between the Tanzanian National Parks Authority and people around Udzungwa Mountains