Daniel W. Gade
Winner of the 2011 Robert McC. Netting Award
Dan is a cultural ecologist, cultural-historical geographer, and biogeographer. His publications are extremely diverse, comparable to Jim Parsons in that sense, but I would say he is best known for his studies of crops, cultivation, and human impacts on plants and animals, particularly in the Central Andes but also in Europe, Madagascar, and Ethiopia. He has published about 135 articles, over 65 book reviews and review essays, and three books, making him one of the most prolific members of CAPE.
About 80 percent of Dan’s publications are in cultural ecology and many are in anthropological journals (Anthropos, Journal of Ethnobjology, Expeditjon, America /ndjgena, Tools and Tillage) and in books edited by anthropologists. Within geography he has five articles in the Annals MG, eight in the Geographical Review, and others are in such major geographical journals as the Journal of Biogeography, Journal of Historical Geography, and GeoJournal. Interdisciplinary journals include Economic Botany, Human Ecology, Landscape, Environmental Conservation. and Mountain Research and Development. Numerous articles are in foreign language journals including Erdkunde and Annales de Geographie.
Dan’s latest book, Nature and Culture in the Andes (1999) is a collection of ten essays, many of which directly pertain to anthropology. This book has received very favorable reviews: e.g. “With its quixotic suite of sweeping essays, Nature and Culture in the Andes offers illuminating insights into a variety of timely topics and current research issues in anthropology (as well as geography and related fields)” (Karl Zimmerer, American Anthropologjst, 2001). Gade states (p.34) that “The most profound meaning of the Andes comes not from a physical description, but from the cultural outcome of 10 millennia of knowing, using, and transforming the varied environments of western South America.” This well sums up his approach and is clearly anthropological as well as geographical, ecological, and historical.
Previous honors received by Dan include two Fulbright awards, the Eminent Latin Americanist Career Award of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, and Fellow of the John Carter Brown Library.
Dan’s research and publications are of consistently high quality, often cited. Much of this concerns the use of and modification of plants and animals by indigenous peoples, with a strong overlap with the work of anthropologists.
CAPE 