In this unique and agenda-setting examination of the relation between nature and culture, Klaus Eder demonstrates our ideas of nature are culturally determined, and explains how the relation between modern, industrial societies and nature is increasingly violent and destructive.

Through an analysis of symbolism, ritual and taboo, Eder questions the view of nature as an object. Showing how nature is socially constructed, he presents a critique of Marx and Durkheim while offering a radical reinterpretation of the relationship among society, culture and nature.

Eder concludes with an examination of the symbolic order of society and of the role of religion in modern culture. Using a culturalist interpretation, he explains how environmentalism, and the social construction of nature, is a key index of social order and structure.

Introduction
PART ONE: A SOCIAL THEORY OF NATURE
The Theoretical Construction of Nature
A Critique of Naturalistic Theories of Evolution
The Evolution of the Societal Relationship to Nature as a Learning Process?
An Ecological Critique of Practical Reason
PART TWO: FROM NATURE TO CULTURE
Culinary Morality
A Comparative Analysis of Food Taboos
Carnivorous and Vegetarian Culture
Two Models of the Symbolic Organization of Society
The Modern Discourse on What To Eat
A Sociology of the Natural Foods Movement
PART THREE: THE MODERN POLITICS OF NATURE
Framing and Communicating Nature
The Political Transformation of Modern Environmentalism
The Politics of Nature
A New Politics?

Klaus Eder has written extensively on class, social movements and social structure. He is author of the New Politics of Class (SAGE 1993).