In environmentalist discourse, there is often an assumption that certain non-industrial peoples, usually called "traditional" or "indigenous" live in more "harmonious" relations with nature. The general argument is that instead of treating these communities as "backward" or "uncivilized," the modern world has much to learn from them in terms of living with the environment. Helena Norberg-Hodge's "Ancient Futures" is an influential book that has defined the ecological culture of Tibetan Buddhist peoples. In this essay, "Ancient Futures" is juxtaposed in the light of a critical framework called Agrarian Environments presented in a collection of essays edited by Agrawal and Sivaramakrishnan (2000).