Wade Davis is lyrical . . .

books:

	• Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures Wade Davis National Geographic, 2002 - 180 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Insightful

So few modernists understand the depth and sophistication of traditional knowledge. Wade Davis is such a refreshing exception

Thoughts

This book opened my eyes to the beauty of various indigenous cultures from all over the world, as well as their history and what is happening in those places currently. While revealing the lifestyles these people live, which is incredibly respectful towards the planet and everything on it, he also shows what is being done by the western powers to destroy these cultures. Though he points out a lot of the negative he maintains a balance which leaves me full of hope and curiousity. This book is what really propelled me to get into anthropology and it bound to have the same effect on others.

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No Photos!!!!!

I am a photographer and was really looking forward to seeing the "dramatic photographs" that "frequently overshadow Davis's informative, witty essays". Other than the book cover, there is not a single photograph in the book. Not one. I ordered four copies based on my expectation that there would be photographs as well as essays, so I was very disappointed. I have since read the book, and it is well-written, heart-felt, thought-provoking and fascinating. I just suggest that the write up be changed to be less misleading.

Wade Davis is lyrical . . .

As far as I'm concerned, Davis is a five-star writer across the board. Not only does this man have more scientific knowledge than he knows what to do with, but he writes about people and plant life with equal flawless prose. This is a good 'starter' book for those who have not yet read him (or, who only heard of "The Serpent and the Rainbow"). His intense interest in, profound respect for indigenous cultures and their people quite obviously generate the trust and knowledge he receives in return. Like his beloved mentor, Harvard's Edward Schultz, he will literally go to 'the ends of the earth'and stay however long it takes so that he may absorb and understand what he finds there. His descriptions (and direct experience)of psychotropic's from the jungles and their place in the culture, should be read by the multi-national plunderers - as well as those whose only frame of reference is Timothy Leary. The natural world around them provide every, single necessary item of life and sustenance for the people. The huge, central-to-life importance of the Shaman is masterfully illustrated. It should be obvious that I cannot say enough in praise of Wade Davis. Go and discover him for yourself, get lost in the wonder of his world - and marvel . . .

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Defining the Ethnosphere

Due to the size of this book, many would simply think of it as a coffee table photography book. While the photos are quite stunning, all captured by Davis himself over the last 25 years in the field, it is the text that is the real gem. Davis currently researches as a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence, but his career has led him to very remote areas of the world to learn about the distinct "ethnosphere", and the modern phenomenon of these vanishing cultures. With amazing detail, gathered first-hand and through interviews, he discusses his research in British Columbia, the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, the Amazon basin (Peru, Brazil, Ecuador),lowland Orinoco settlements in Venezuela and Colombia, Haiti, Malaysia, Kenya, Tibet, Australia, and Nunavut (among others with less detail). He notes that great effort has been put towards protecting biodiversity, while cultural diversity, as well as language is being lost everyday. With nods to many of the great anthropologists and scientists of the 19th and 20th century, he recognizes that modern nations can enrich themselves by accepting and encouraging the inherent diversity, "not as failed attempts at modernity", but as new opportunities to see the human experience in full color.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

For renowned anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, the term ?ethnosphere? encompasses the wealth of human diversity and all that traditional cultures have to teach about different ways of living and thinking.

In Light at the Edge of the World, Davis?best known for The Serpent and the Rainbow?presents an intimate survey of the ethnosphere in 80 striking photographs taken over the course of his wide exploration. In eloquent accompanying text, Davis takes readers deep into worlds few Westerners will ever experience, worlds that are fading away even as he writes. From the Canadian Arctic and the rain forests of Borneo to the Amazon and the towering mountains of Tibet, readers are awakened to the rituals, beliefs, and lives of the Waorani, the Penan, the Inuit, and many other unique and endangered traditional cultures. The result is a haunting and enlightening realization of the limitless potential of the human imagination of life.

While globalization has become the battle cry of the 21st century, Davis?s magisterial work points out that the erosion of the ethnosphere will diminish us all. ?The human imagination is vast, fluid, infinite in its capacity for social and spiritual invention,? he writes, and reminds us that ?there are other means of interpreting our existence, other ways of being.?

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