“Smallhoders, Householders” by Robert Netting examines the importance of smallholders and the vast information these groups possess regarding the environmental needs of their ecosystem, despite colonial dismissal of their knowledge. The theme within Netting’s writing and research is the concept of sustainability, and his fieldwork and data prove how these communities are able to innovate to create culturally appropriate answers to their environmental needs. As small social organizations, how are smallholders sustainable and successful in their endeavors? Netting argues that not only do smallholders adapt to their ever-changing environments, but they must also adapt to their volatile economies. Netting’s studies of indigenous smallholder populations are important because it shows conclusive evidence against the myth that these communities lack the ability and knowledge to be sustainable. The significance in Netting’s research is that it begins to remove the distance from the dichotomy of “Western” and “Non-Western” and other opposites considered in environmental discourse. When analyzing the global environment and attempting to understand how everything fits together in a series of feedback loops, polarity cannot exist between communities. The dichotomy of Western thought versus the rest of the world is especially harmful because it creates a standard by which all human-environmental actions are compared, and this is not always accurate. Netting’s writing and research gives important insights into how sustainable practices exist in non-Western societies, and allows for a premise upon which other anthropologists continue examining how different social organizations impact their local and global environments.