As Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic, Wade Davis may well have the coolest job in the world and definitely the best title. And while his recent collection of lectures does give us a peak into the life of a modern-day explorer, it also is a collection of some of the most poignant prose and thoughtful evaluation of modernity I have read in quite some time. With discussions of the power of language to craft culture and the void created when languages are lost and the force of sacred geography and how we respond to the physical spaces in our lives, this book touches on so many things that continue to come to mind in conversations in class. I can't recommend the book enough...
I'll leave this with two quotes:
"We too are culturally myopic and often forget that we represent not the absolute wave of history but merely a worldview, and that modernity -- whether you identify it by the monikers westernization, capitalism, democracy, or free trade -- is but an expression of our cultural values. It is not some objective force removed from the constrains of culture. And it is certainly not the true and only pulse of history" (p 193).
From the Joint Declaration of the Mamos of the Sierra Nevadas:
"Who will pay the universal mother for the air we breathe, the water that flows, the light of the sun? Everything that exists has a spirit that is sacred and must be respected. Our law is the Law of Origins, the Law of Life. We invite all the Younger Brothers to be guardians of life. We affirm our promise to the Mother, and issue a call for solidarity and unity for all peoples and all nations" (p 147).
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