Landscapes of Fraud

Sheridan explores how the penetration of the evolving capitalist world-system created and destroyed communities in the Upper Santa Cruz Valley of Arizona from the late 1600s to the 1970s. As the valley underwent a wrenching transition from a landscape of community to a landscape of fraud, the betrayal of the Oodham became complete when land, the most elemental form of human space, was transformed from communal resource into commodity, bought and sold for its future value. Today, Mission Tumaccori stands as a romantic icon of the past while the landscapes that supported it lay buried under speculative schemes that continue to haunt our history. In Landscapes of Fraud, Thomas Sheridan has melded history, anthropology, and critical geography to create a penetrating view of greed and power and their lasting effect on those left powerless. The conflicts will be familiar to everyone, but I know of no others so carefully documented and skillfully discussed. This is Sheridans most elegant prose yet! Economic Botany This is a compelling book. It is a rare anthropological page-turner. American EthnologistSheridan, Thomas E. is the author of 'Landscapes of Fraud', published 2008 under ISBN 9780816527496 and ISBN 0816527490.