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Based on his years spent in Malawi, Morris demonstrates an intimate knowledge of virtually every aspect of human-insect relations. Not only is the book useful in terms of the more practical side of entomology, it also provides a wealth of information on the role of insects in cultural production.
Folk Classification of Insects * Insects as Food * Bees and Bee-Keeping * Insects and Agriculture * Household Pests and Locust Swarms * Insects and Disease * Cultural Entomology * Appendix: Insect Life of Malawi
Brian Morris is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
'For social anthropology, this book has the comparative advantage over other monographs dealing with people of the Maravi-cluster and beyond as Morris uses the interface with natural empirical sciences and draws comparative examples from other parts of the world whenever available and accessible... Morris enriches not only the literature on Malawi, but the international debate on how to understand the life of human beings whose struggle for survival is still very much determined and dependent on how they interact with the natural world.' Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 'Brian Morris brings to this work his lifelong experience of Malawian fauna and ethnography, together with enviable skills as a tireless field naturalist and consummate ethnographer. Simultaneously the iconoclast and extoller of the virtues of sound empiricism, Morris provides us here with a comprehensive, innovative and fascinating account of the connections between culturally embedded insect knowledge in Malawi and the role which insects play in local human ecology in its widest sense. A definitive study.' Roy Ellen, University of Kent at Canterbury 'A pioneering exercise by an anthropologist in the new academic field of Cultural Entomology ... This is an important work, a valuable addition to Morris's already substantial contribution.' Roy Willis, University of Edinburgh "Insects and Human Life' is a thorough, meticulous and very detailed ethno-entomological account.' Jonathan McKee, Anthrozoos journal
