Ecologico' significa molteplice, locale, autonomo

In part of presentday anthropology, there is a theoretical radicality that is lost when the ontological, epistemological, ecological and existential experiences of those who inhabit human worlds different from our own are not taken seriously enough. This happens if, in the confrontation with otherness, the yardstick of what is real, possible, desirable and just remains that of Western modernity. An anthropological perspective on the environmental issue thus entails a certain willingness to estrangement and invites us to let go of the presumption of superiority grafted onto us by five centuries of colonialism. The lesson to be learned, in fact, has not only to do with our by now excruciating need to establish a less destructive relationship with what we call 'nature', but with the very idea of nature and the possibility of inhabiting a world free from hegemony. [Publisher's text]