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Description: In <i>Soul of the Tiger</i>, conservationists Jeffrey McNeely and Paul Sochaczewski draw on more than two decades of experience in Southeast Asia to examine the relationship between its people and animals, what the relationship meant in the past, how it is changing, and what relevance it might have for the future. In a sequence of interconnected essays, the authors demonstrate the degree to which traditional peoples maintain empirical knowledge about their surroundings and how much of the experience is reflected in myth and memory. They argue effectively that this storehouse of information and insight should be respected, studied, and understood by modern society before it disappears along with the endangered animals of the region. Combining sound scholarship with an engaging style, the authors present brief case studies of people-species relationships viewed from various perspectives—ecological, mythological, and historical, among others. Their fascinating and sometimes humorous accounts reveal the vital connection between rural people and wildlife.
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