Customer Reviews

Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A package arrived from home several weeks into my first semester of school. In it, my dad had included a copy of SHADOWS IN THE SUN. I am toying with the idea of adding Anthropology as a second major to my current Chemistry. After reading Davis's book, I was nothing short of enlightening. It's strange to think that such an awakening can occur after experiencing another culture vicariously through a stranger, but his essays were enough for me to name him my current science hero. He writes with a passion that is unparalled by many scientists. Complicated details, from the biochemical make-up of toad secretions to the effects of drinking ayahuasca, are written in a way my eighty-one year old great-grandmother could understand them. An eventual goal of mine is to do science writing, and Davis writes just as I aspire to. Candidly and comically, he personifies the robotesque stereotype many people must have of scientists. Nothing stuffy or arrogant about these essays. Davis is the first scientist I have ever read who has admitted in print that he has been baffled by the discoveries research has led him to. No "I knew I was right" attitude, and only vivid descriptions that make the book impossible to put down. It allowed me to look beyond my own ethnocentricities and taste the tiniest sample of the importance of environment in other cultures. Nothing short of amazing and, although I am still young, I imagine this book will remain one of my favorites for quite a while.

I read "Shadows" while in Mexico on vacation after hearing his interview on NPR and was delighted with it. Davis shows how it's possible to combine academics, environmentalism, travel and adventure into a life that's so much more interesting than anything shown on TV or in video games. Here's somebody who really went out and got a life.

This book is an excellent way to introduce anyone to the joys of cultural anthropolgy. It exams various aspects of different cultures in each chapter, thereby making it easy to read as each chapter presents a different culture. Davis is the ultimate story-teller, though his tone is that of science as opposed to the average traveler tales. Unfortauntely, most scientists with something to present do not present it in a way that is pleasant to read; Davis is the exception. This book is good reading if you wish to experiance forgein lands; it will remind you of those childhood stories of far of places. This book introduces thoughts on the paradox of the delightful differences yet beautiful unity of lands and their people. It makes the land come alive. Scholars will appreciate this book as informative relaxing reading. It is a fantastic way to introduce a student to the joys of understand people around the world. Children would delighted in most of the stories; the concepts are presented in such a way that even they can grasp the meaning. As a high school student trying to settle on a major which will entice my interest and challege me for the rest of my life, Davis has managed to help me find my quest. Anthropogy opens in this book. The thoughts on the importance of having a land have been abandonned by the philosophical community, so it is good to see a scientist stepping out to remind us that there is something to having a homeland.

How tough are we, really? When I was twelve I can assure you that I was not killing polar bears and whales; but Wade Davis introduces the reader to just such an Inuit boy. The boy is special in that he carries on a tradition of providing his community with sustenance; but he is one of many such boys and men in his community. Shadows in the Sun is filled with cultural activities that seem bizzare, terrifying, beautifully exotic, outrageous, and downright strange to those of us whose culture is surrounded by electronics, mass media, and mass prefabrication. It is a beautifully written book that samples human diversity as a threatened and disappearing art form.

Wade davis, ethnobotanist extraordinaire, has set for himself an exceedingly high standard, especially after the publication of One River. I awaited with anticipation my copy of Shadows In The Sun, especially after hearing Wade on NPR. As an interview, he was cogent, compelling, brilliant and witty. Too bad, then, that Shadows In The Sun does not live up either to One River, or to Wade's terrific radio presence. A collection of snippets, Shadows could work, but it drags a bit. And while Davis offers up the kind of compelling descriptions and pithy observations that are his stock in trade, the whole delivery comes off a bit disjointed. Nonetheless, it's thought-provoking and useful. But if you're hoping for the kind of page-turner that Wade davis has put out before, you're in for a let-down. It may be better to follow some of his practical if risky procedure and smoke the venomous scrapings of Bufo alvarius toad. That would certainly be a head-turner. Just a thought...

I also heard the interview on NPR while driving to work one morning. I immediatedly went on-line to Amazon.com and bought this book. I read it during my last trip through South America, and found it to be fascinating and informative. It gives clear and concise information about the regions Mr. Davis is visiting, and how the indigineous people have lived and are now being detroyed. These are the last wild places, and peoples - from the North of Canada to the Amazon rain forests. His writing makes you feel both the experience, and also ashamed of how Western culture and business are destroying these gems. The only negative I could say about this book is that Mr. Davis sometimes seems a little too eager to tell about how the local herbal concoctions are made and their psychic affects.

At first I thought I had read this book already, and while it's technically possible, I think I am getting that sensation because Wade Davis recycles his stories and essays over and over again. By now I think I've read everything he's written (or getting very close, at any rate) and I love it all. He has great stories. But like a drunk uncle at a Christmas party, they are changing as he gets older and they are also getting a little tired. By my count, I've heard about the running of the borders in the Andes about 6 times now, and it's fascinating, it's a really great tradition and Davis tells it well, but honestly, I expect more from a man who's travelled around the world, lived with the Penan and in the Amazon and in Haiti and in the Stikine...he's got to have more stories than that. So in that respect I found this book frustrating because I kept skipping ahead for something that didn't sound like something I'd already heard. And that's a shame because his stories are enticing and he writing style is engaging, I'm just hungry for more new material.

How tough are we, really? When I was twelve I can assure you that I was not killing polar bears and whales; but Wade Davis introduces the reader to just such an Inuit boy. The boy is special in that he carries on a tradition of providing his community with sustenance; but he is one of many such boys and men in his community. Shadows in the Sun is filled with cultural activities that seem bizzare, terrifying, beautifully exotic, outrageous, and downright strange to those of us whose culture is surrounded by electronics, mass media, and mass prefabrication. It is a beautifully written book that samples human diversity as a threatened and disappearing art form.

Wade Davis describes world cultures long ignored by others with such love and concern that you cannot withhold respect for this most unusual explorer of modern times. His essays and in-depth studies of tribes and regions most in need of contemporary solutions and concentration of studies by many others are as moving as they are exhaustive in detail. As I finished one section after the other I thought I would never forget the plight or wondrous life of such-and-such tribe only to be overwhelmed with concern about what will happen if we do not heed his wisdom and immediately do something about the natural rubber crisis! It was like that over and over again... so compelling that I cannot imagine Wade writing a better book, but I will continue to read his work until I know for sure!

The subtitle: "Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire" hints at the depth and width of the stories and essays in this book, as if intended to be the `back story' of Wade's wonderful pictorial book: "Light at the Edge of the World ~ A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures."

Check out Shadows in the Sun for yourself... see if you are not just as awestruck by Wade Davis' in-depth knowledge of plants, people, language, and culture of Earth's peoples as I am.

_Shadows in the Sun_ is a collection of essays on biodiversity, from both an anthropological perspective as well as from a biological standpoint. The brilliance of the book is the way in which Daivs illustrates the juxtaposition and similarity between the two.

Davis takes you from the rainforests of Indonesia to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, voudon practices in Haiti, toad licking in the Amercan southwest, "surviving" in the Canadian arctic. In each essay, the tremendous variety of life (animal - including human - plant and fungal) and its adaptation to its environment is discussed in detail.

I give it four stars rather than five due to the underlying lament of the loss of bio (and cultural) diversity that is taking place worldwide. Certainly this is a just concern, and Davis is not the first to draw attention to this. However by only discussing the damage the modern, industrialized world is causing without addressing ways of elimintating the harm being done makes such observations a moot point. Even with this criticism, however, I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful read.