The Smaller Majority Press Release
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Harvard University Press
For Immediate Release Contact: Rose Ann Miller
Senior Publicist
roseann_miller@harvard.edu
Phone. 617.495.4714
Fax. 617.495.4051
IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS IN LIFE THAT MATTER
Bugs mesmerize and captivate children. Venture outdoors to any park or beach and you will find them kneeling down to observe ants, ladybugs, and spiders. Kids love the quick speed of a daddy-long-leg, the vibrant wings of a butterfly, and on summer nights the intermittent flash of fireflies. Children are charmed by the wonders of the natural world around them and at their level. But what about adults, for most of whom bugs inspire not so much fascination as disgust, repulsion, or even fear? And what about the mystifying, natural world not visible in our everyday surroundings? Ninety-nine percent of living things are smaller, on average, than a human fingernail. Thus, there is a whole world of tiny, exotic creatures who live and thrive far beyond our own backyards and are invisible to us without microscopes and high-powered lenses. What about the splendid, overlooked variety of life under our feet?
In a sense, Piotr Naskrecki is like a kid who never grew up. In his exquisite book THE SMALLER MAJORITY (Harvard University Press; November 1, 2005; $35.00), Naskrecki takes us on a unique visual journey into the world of organisms that constitute most of macroscopic (i.e., visible to the human eye) animal life in the tropics. He photographs katydids, ants, millipedes, flatworms, toads, and a whole plethora of other organisms that are united by the fact of being very small or "non-charismatic." Throughout, Naskrecki shares astonishing anecdotes--surviving viper bites, spending two days away from civilization in a southern African savanna, stripping naked in West Africa to escape a swarm of driver ants that, in the author's words, "invaded, it seemed, every nook and cranny of my body after I accidentally stepped into their marching column. The mandibles of their large soldiers easily cut through skin, and even smaller workers can cause considerable pain."
As you may infer from flipping through it, eighty percent of THE SMALLER MAJORITY's content is photographic. Unlike most visual books, which employ four-color graphics, Naskrecki‚s is printed in Hexachrome or six-color, which means that his startling images, photographed with the most advanced photographic equipment, are now available to us almost exactly as they looked to him via his lenses in Bangkok, Costa Rica, Guinea, and Madagascar. Most of the photographs depict animals that have never been photographed before (e. g., species new to science), or whose behavior has either not been documented, or documented inadequately (e. g., katydids preying on other katydids). Too, many images were taken in very remote, inaccessible places (e. g., montane forests of Madagascar). All organisms were photographed in their natural habitats over the ten years Naskrecki spent traveling across six continents researching invertebrate diversity. Instead of isolating his subjects from their traditional surroundings, Naskrecki relies on a wide-angle perspective, allowing readers to see the world of the smaller animals from their point of view and in their natural environments.
Naskrecki believes that while small creatures fascinate us as children, this interest is in most cases squelched by peer pressure and cultural prejudices by the time we reach adulthood. With THE SMALLER MAJORITY he hopes to reinforce this initial, innate curiosity in young readers, and perhaps awaken a long-forgotten fascination in older ones. The underlying message of THE SMALLER MAJORITY is biodiversity conservation. Throughout, Naskrecki relies on stunning imagery and personalized narrative about individual species or biological phenomena while discussing the threats that these easily overlooked animals face due to human encroachment on their habitats. In addition, he focuses on the terrifying rate of their extinction while introducing possible solutions to the problems.
Most of THE SMALLER MAJORITY deals with invertebrate animals, such as insects, arachnids, or flatworms, but it also presents an insight into the world of small, little-known vertebrates, such as pygmy chameleons of Madagascar or legless, underground frog relatives known as caecilians. Naskrecki consciously avoids referring to invertebrates as "bugs" or "creepy-crawlies." Instead he presents the animals as significant, if not the most important, members of biological communities, and uses their proper, accepted names. THE SMALLER MAJORITY presents interesting, little-known facts about the organisms in the photographs in a language that is both scientifically sound and at the same time accessible to readers with no background in biological sciences.
Piotr Naskrecki is Director of the Invertebrate Diversity Initiative of Conservation International and Research Associate with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.
THE SMALLER MAJORITY
By Piotr Naskrecki
Harvard University Press
Publication date: November 1, 2005
278 Pages; ISBN 0-674-01915-6; Price $35.00
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