This book provides an overview and generalized picture of the evolution of human environmental economy. This book outlines the history of how hominids have altered and used the environment over the past 5 million years, with the first part comprising a general survey to set the stage for the study of the role of forest fires in human ecology and the second part discussing the history of complex societies and the concept of sustainable society. In addition, this work also provides a review of the general literature on economic anthropology covering the efforts of a number of scientists such as Creighton Gabel, Marshall Sahlins and Raymond Firth to John Clammer, Susana Narotzky, C.A. Gregory, and Mary Douglas. This book also covers the idea of forest fires as a biological concept as well as a popular image driving ideas and public policy. It presents a study of how forest and wild fires differ in the ethnohistorical literature and provides a cross-cultural and historic framework for these concepts.