Humans and the Environment

Gary Snyder the poet is inseparable from Gary Snyder the anthropologist. He has a distinct interest in studying human life not in isolation, but as an integral part of everything that is natural. The need to recognize the earth itself as a living being—along with all its trees, rocks, plants, and animals, including humans—is a major theme in much of Snyder's work, and such is the case for "Anasazi." Throughout the poem, there is interplay of humans, animals, plants, even sandstone and rock canyons. While many of us may not visualize living in the crags of a mountain as a very comfortable existence, here the lifestyle is portrayed as almost cozy. The Anasazi are "tucked up" in the cliffs, a phrase usually reserved for a softer, warmer form of protection or comfort. Along the same lines, "sinking deeper and deeper in earth" may...