Problem 1: How can industrial and postindustrial societies learn the lessons of environmental sustainability from péoples who practice other, more environmentally friendly modes of subsistence? What needs to be done to promote these values and practices? Is it possible for industrial and postindustrial societies to be as sustainable?
Problem 2: How are modes of subsistence and social organization linked? Why does egalitarianism work so well for band type societies and not as well for more complex societies? Why do societies grow more complex in their organization? What are the benefits and drawbacks of greater complexity in social organization?
Problem 3: What do you think is the future for the world's hundreds of millions of independent herders, farmers, and peasants trying to make a living off the land as their ancestors did? What are their options? Do you think that such lifestyles will exist 50 or 100 years from now? Why or why not?