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The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World (CBC Massey Lecture)

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Wade Davis is right, what matters most is power, landscape and imagination. We either demean the primitive, romanticize the indigenous, or abide in a state of unbelievable ignorance of the meaning of the different ways humans have lived in this world. In his Massey Lectures, which make up this book, Davis has brought together his vast experiences of other peoples with the sheer poetry of his masterful writing to point out how much we have to learn from those whose unique understanding of the world is embedded in their means of surviving in vastly differing landscapes. It is not that people whose text-messaging-adept hands twitch while nervously fondling their cell phones are bad. But it may be that they can learn something about what it means to be human from peoples like the Australian Aborigines who lived for millennia in what we regard as a wasteland guided by Dream Time something we might only imagine in the best computer animation which does not fill one's belly except from employment in post-industrial society. And Aborigines in turn, on pain of extinction, have had to concede to our world but have miraculously managed to preserve some of their heritage, as have the indigenous of the Amazon, the Sahara, North America, and Tibet all of whom Davis tells us about.

This is a very important book. Its author brings us face to face with what we are losing when we passively accept the forcing of the whole world into the mold of our lives. It is not merely some romantic past that is represented by native resistance. As Davis mentions, the last speaker of a language must bear the tragedy of the vanishing of a whole way life with its unique relationship to landscape and community. Reading Davis, I would choose some of the human connection he describes and most certainly the intimacy with landscape that others had---an intimacy that led to adaptations fully as clever and sophisticated as any Western Civilization developed. Pull the plug on electricity and I and everything around me goes down the tubes.

The lecture that most captivated me was the one on Polynesian navigation. The book is more than worth it for this one chapter. Navigators, including women, using the most subtle indicators of stars, and seas, weather and animal life guide a raft through what to Europeans was a trackless ocean. If this is not among the most remarkable uses of the human mind I don't know what else is. It is not done with books or GPS or rational thinking as we know it. It is a keystone of cultures which have their own integrity. And Polynesians are matched by Eskimos, Andeans, desert wayfinders and many others. To lose these ways of knowing and living is to lose aspects of our humanity honed over tens of thousands of years. Wade Davis reminds us how terrible this loss is. And he is a Canadian and the Massey Lectures are the most prestigious in Canada. In the States we tend to miss the contributions of our northern neighbor. Wake up and look north! This book has much to teach us.

Charlie Fisher: emeritus professor and author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

With the converging crises of imminent energy scarcity, environmental degradation, resource depletion and economic insolvency, suddenly I'm recognizing the apogee of our modern civilization may have passed us by a few decades ago. Being on the slope of globalization's decline as opposed to its ascent or plateau is a precarious position, mainly because the evidence increasingly indicates an ever more bleak definition of the future. But that's precisely why I found Wade Davis' 2009 CBC Massey Lectures collected in The Wayfinders so deeply inspiring. The way we define our lives and the meaning of being a human is far from an absolute and objective answer to reality, it has been the result of numerous decisions made in a compounding form over hundreds of years. Because humanity at large expresses itself in the form of modernity is largely a result of the ever growing demand our lifestyle has on ever more hard to reach raw material inputs. Although I listened to this entire series of lectures through the CBC Ideas Podcast, Davis' presentation hit me with much more gravity the second time around.

The genius and intelligence recognized by modern humanity is only in that of highly advanced technology while the genius of the cultures detailed in The Wayfinders takes many different forms. Each culture is far from trivial but an answer to the questions that come with being human, all of these answers just as impressive as our own. Our tendency is for to look at the naked and painted body of the native as a failed attempt at modernity. A native to be saved by induction into our economic system with all the benefits of employment and monetary exchange. Even until the 1960's some Australian textbooks included the Aboriginals among, "interesting animals of the country". To this point Davis quotes from the testimony of a Penan nomad to the UN General Assembly in 1992, "The (Malaysian) government says that it is bringing us development. But the only development that we see is dusty logging roads and relocation camps. For us, their so-called progress means only starvation, dependence, helplessness, the destruction of our culture and the demoralization of our people. The government says it is creating jobs for our people. Why do we need jobs? My father and grandfather did not have t o ask the government for jobs. They were never unemployed. They lived from the land and from the forest. It was a good life. We were never hungry or in need... In ten years all the jobs will be gone and the forest that has sustained us for thousands of years will be gone with them."

Davis is able to continue his discussion without resorting to the "noble savage" or the Hobbesian, "nasty, brutish and short" dichotomy. For the cultures he touches on from Australia, the Americas, Africa and Asia it is clear that a genius is required to flourish in harsh environments, against any odds we would consider possible. And all of this despite harmful environmental degradation brought about by our lifestyle. Denial of climate change is a luxury provided by a temperate environment and disconnection from the natural world. For native peoples, when the glaciers their ancestors have worshiped for generations are disappearing and the Arctic lands they've hunted annually for all of history fail to freeze but for a few months there is no ideology, only survival.

I was nearly drawn to tears by the examples of rituals and lifestyles Davis uses to illustrate the depth of beauty of human experience. The Pacific islanders sailing thousands of kilometers between beautiful islands with wind blowing through their hair to complete the Kula gift sharing ring live the lives we can only experience through fictional characters projected onto glowing rectangles. The indigenous have no sense of paid employment, of work as burden as opposed to leisure as recreation. These cultures are the definition of the human experience that we have lost and try to replace through futile substitutes. These people experience pain and suffering along with glory and triumph, but through the full spectrum of being human, as opposed to our path which fails in its attempts to shield us from the realities of death and darkness.

These cultures have disappeared rapidly over the last hundred years, entire ways of life wiped out in less than a generation. Davis wonders why we have a universal rejection of genocide yet the ubiquitous practice of ethnocide destroys more than individuals but whole solutions to the human experience. We may discredit an indigenous approach to life, but they disdain the fact that so many of our own suffer from abject poverty. A native tribesman from Malaysia when observing the homeless in Canada said, "How can homelessness exist, a poor man shames us all."

The most important lecture included in this collection was the discussion of sacred geography, of the stewardship shown by indigenous to their land. When the Spanish tore down Incan churches and monuments, building Christian churches and monasteries in their place, the native villagers celebrated because this further confirmed the sacredness of those sites. Likely not the reaction the Spanish intended. If we are to look at cultures in terms of success and failure, wouldn't the successful culture be the one that has survived for over 50,000 years in the harsh deserts of Australia as opposed to our modern world on the verge of extinction after only 300? An idea of a sacred connection to land may be dismissed as meaningless superstition, but if it does not draw from an actual spirit world, perhaps it was the technological solution created long ago to ensure our species wouldn't destroy the earth.

Davis has convinced me that when we talk about threats to our planet such as climate change or peak oil, we're really talking about the end of our globalized civilization and not the extinction of humanity. Our species can exist in many other forms that live far more meaningful lives than the "modern man". And for that reason, no matter how bleak the global situation may appear to be, the existence of the indigenous and their ability to maintain ancient wisdom despite all odds is a reason for hope.

The amount of research that has gone into this book is staggering! This book will change the way you see the world and your place in it. While on one hand it gives a very depressing view of our past and our motives, it also provides the perspective that can save our planet. This book should be a must read in every school around the world!

Wade Davis always writes beautifully, and I think this book is one of his best. It is sobering and shocking. At the same time, it is moving, profound and hopeful. It is the work of a man who has great humanity and wisdom, together with admiration and respect for the peoples and cultures he writes about. I found it to be a genuinely beautiful book.

This is one of the few books that I would say everyone should read. Davis gives you a view into worlds of imagination and achievement that most of us in the modern world never have any idea about. It's not a rosy, "ancient people had it all figured out" picture of older civilizations but a down-on-the-ground guidebook to other cultures that really changes the way you see the ancient world. Very highly recommended. It'll change your mind.

The sub-title describes this wonderful book best: "Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World"...

Once again, Wade Davis provides piercing insights into the world's cultures that modern man has tried to, and continues to work at, annihilating and erasing from our lives at such a tremendous cost to our combined humanity. His writing is exquisite! He details his discoveries with a loving eye, and any criticism is tempered by his thoughtful presentations in an attempt to provide answers or solutions to what was uncovered as being off track. I so appreciate anyone who attempts to solve problems... not just rattle away about what is wrong, painting everything in dark tones as if beyond redemption.

I am thankful I discovered this great anthropologist's work while preparing for an upcoming visit to one of his many favorite countries. I cannot imagine what would have been missed without benefit of his great experience and knowledge when interpreting such adventures.

"The Wayfinders" is made up of lectures produced for the Massey Lecture series presented at the University of Toronto, but reads as though written for a print audience only. I consider this one of his best books since it provides the in-depth back story to his great DVDs and other works.

his book is an important one for anyone interested in 'wisdoms' from other cultures,both living and past.Wade Davis is a erudite writer,cross referencing poetry,literature from all over, along with his social anthropological research.
This could sound a bit dry and academic,but Davis is also a writer who can have you so into ,say,the navigation skills of early Polynesian adventurers, that you feel you are on the canoe.
His thesis is that complicated civilisations existed without 'economic rationalism' as their guiding mores;that these civilisations lived without exploiting the world they lived in,and that we should at least recognise that there are other ways of living on the planet. This book shows us how we might at least consider these ways of living.
He's not fond of Bruce Chatwin's 'Songlines'
It is exciting to read;informative;and poetic(in the best way).I'm lending it to friends(well,three so far) all of whom have said they want this book themselves for the 'will read again'bookshelf.
I also recommend Dog Ear Cafe by Andrew Stojanowski(this spelling might be off...can't check as I have lent the book)which gave me a close up picture of working in an Aust aboriginal community. These books complement each other.

This book tells us about ourselves and our history in such a broad way, making the book a bit hard to classify. In many ways it is about the speed at which human cultures and the natural environments of the world are being affected by our break neck speed of development in these days. The author's compassion for our fellow man is impressive. His knowledge about the fascinating peoples he studies comes from living among them and taking the time to appreciate their knowledge. Certainly this is cultural anthropology but it is much, much more. The writing is excellent and compeling. Among the top 10 books I have read in my life. A must read for all humans.

As an author I don't think it is appropriate for Amazon to accept as reviews complaints from customers about the delivery of their books from a retail outlet. Amazon ratings are important, and reviews should be focused on the book. A customer who is mad because of a problem with an order should not be permitted to drag down a book's rating.

It's hard to believe the extent to which European explorations and settlement among indigenous peoples around the world discredited their sophistication in science and technology. This book gives insights into a half dozen indiegenous people and their skill and expertise in natural science, architecture, astronomy, agriculture, and other areas of science. Virtually all of this body of knowledge was destroyed by the "conquerors". Only today are we beginning to understand, and respect, that which was lost for so many millennia.