Jungle by Patrick Roberts

Jungle
How Tropical Forests Shaped the World — and Us
by Patrick Roberts
Basic Books
Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781541600096
Page Count: 368

*The book was kindly given by the publishers for a review*

Jungle written by archaeologist Patrick Roberts brings the natural history of tropical forests and their connection to human evolution in a new light. The book presents a comprehensive history of tropical ecosystems and how they shaped human history. A natural history book with some new revelations and interpretations will draw the reader to perceive forests as a part of the interconnected continuum that is nature.

Tropical forests originated almost 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. They were responsible for the regulation of soil nutrient cycles, functioning of the atmosphere, and evolution of various life-forms. Roberts points out that the term “jungle” usually connotates the image of untamed wilderness in the popular imagination. Plants always hold less appeal in popular culture. For example, plant forms during the age of dinosaurs are less visible in media reports than giant reptiles. But new research in paleontology, fossil pollens, paleoclimatology, and coprolites (fossilized feces of animals) narrates a story of coevolution between dinosaurs and plants. The warm and wet forests were critical in the evolution of mammals as well. By the Eocene period primates in the tropical forests took advantage of the dense plant cover, exploited nutrient-rich fruits and seeds, and evolved useful teeth forms and body shapes.

A popular image since the Victorian age shows that humans evolved and migrated across dry savannah landscapes. But latest studies show that our bipedal ancestors evolved in tropical landscapes rather than plain grasslands. Similarly, the origin of agriculture and domestication in areas like the “Fertile Crescent” has laid the foundation for current Euro-American farming practices. However, prehistoric societies in rainforests utilized a range of plants for food production and developed mixed approaches by combining crops with indigenous plants. These indigenous practices hold solutions for our current problems of soil erosion, unstable landscapes, and ecological collapse.

I personally liked the section of the book that discusses the ancient forest cities in the book like Greater Angkor, Mayan urban centers, and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. Recent scholarly works have shed new light on the so-called ‘collapse’ of certain civilizations in the past. Readers of Collapse by Jared Diamond may find this worthwhile. The low-density, agrarian-based urban areas were highly resilient because of sustainable forest management, farming crops in open patches, and water management. Their methods made some of them the largest cities in the preindustrial world before the Europeans began their systematic exploitation through the tropics. Such urban practices are an inspiration for modern city planners to build ecologically mindful cities for an increasing population.

The book’s final chapters describe the European colonization and expansion and its impact on tropical cultures. The Columbian exchange introduced new plants and animals that reconfigured ecosystems leading to the extinction of several indigenous flora and fauna. Transatlantic trade brought diseases, enslavement, murder, and abuse and created transgenerational trauma in Indigenous societies. Intense plantation cultures stripped the tropics of both greenery and human dignity. The same Eurocentric expansionist view shaped our current global economic markets, politics, societal inequality, and racism, and fuelled climate change.

Jungle prompts its readers to make a positive shift in their perspective about Indigenous history and practices and the importance of forests and their products which makes life around Earth possible. Although readers looking for policies and solutions shall have to look elsewhere since Jungle is primarily a broad natural history of tropical forests with implications from anthropocentric practices. The buck stops there. It is densely packed with information and facts, especially the first few chapters dealing with paleoclimate and geology. Readers might feel these sections are a bit longer but the conclusions are very well articulated so skipping some sections won’t mar the reading experience of these particular chapters. Overall, if you are an avid natural history reader Jungle is a terrific addition to your repertoire.