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Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures
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, Davisbest known for The Serpent and the Rainbowpresents 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.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 31, 2001
67 people are currently reading
1195 people want to read
About the author
Wade Davis
85 books827 followersEdmund Wade Davis has been described as "a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life's diversity."
An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6,000 botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international best seller that appeared in ten languages and was later released by Universal as a motion picture.
His other books include Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Shadows in the Sun (1993), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), Book of Peoples of the World (ed. 2008), and One River (1996), which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Into the Silence, an epic history of World War I and the early British efforts to summit Everest, was published in October, 2011. Sheets of Distant Rain will follow.
Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Lowell Thomas Medal (The Explorers Club) and the 2002 Lannan Foundation prize for literary nonfiction. In 2004 he was made an honorary member of the Explorers Club, one of just 20 in the hundred-year history of the club. In recent years his work has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the high Arctic of Nunavut and Greenland.
A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed river guide, has worked as park ranger and forestry engineer and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published 150 scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian myth and religion to the global biodiversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians.
Davis has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Premiere, Outside, Omni, Harpers, Fortune, Men's Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Natural History, Utne Reader, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and several other international publications.
His photographs have been featured in a number of exhibits and have been widely published, appearing in some 20 books and more than 80 magazines, journals, and newspapers. His research has been the subject of more than 700 media reports and interviews in Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, and has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series The X Files.
A professional speaker for nearly 20 years, Davis has lectured at the National Geographic Society, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and California Academy of Sciences, as well as many other museums and some 200 universities, including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, and Stanford. He has spoken at the Aspen Institute, Bohemian Grove, Young President’s Organization, and TED Conference. His corporate clients have included Microsoft, Shell, Hallmark, Bank of Nova Scotia, MacKenzie Financials, Healthcare Association of Southern California, National Science Teachers Association, and many others.
An honorary research associate of the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, he is a fellow of the Linnean Society, the Explorers Club, and the Royal Geographical Society.
(Source: National Geographic)
An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6,000 botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international best seller that appeared in ten languages and was later released by Universal as a motion picture.
His other books include Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Shadows in the Sun (1993), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), Book of Peoples of the World (ed. 2008), and One River (1996), which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Into the Silence, an epic history of World War I and the early British efforts to summit Everest, was published in October, 2011. Sheets of Distant Rain will follow.
Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Lowell Thomas Medal (The Explorers Club) and the 2002 Lannan Foundation prize for literary nonfiction. In 2004 he was made an honorary member of the Explorers Club, one of just 20 in the hundred-year history of the club. In recent years his work has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the high Arctic of Nunavut and Greenland.
A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed river guide, has worked as park ranger and forestry engineer and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published 150 scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian myth and religion to the global biodiversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians.
Davis has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Premiere, Outside, Omni, Harpers, Fortune, Men's Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Natural History, Utne Reader, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and several other international publications.
His photographs have been featured in a number of exhibits and have been widely published, appearing in some 20 books and more than 80 magazines, journals, and newspapers. His research has been the subject of more than 700 media reports and interviews in Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, and has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series The X Files.
A professional speaker for nearly 20 years, Davis has lectured at the National Geographic Society, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and California Academy of Sciences, as well as many other museums and some 200 universities, including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, and Stanford. He has spoken at the Aspen Institute, Bohemian Grove, Young President’s Organization, and TED Conference. His corporate clients have included Microsoft, Shell, Hallmark, Bank of Nova Scotia, MacKenzie Financials, Healthcare Association of Southern California, National Science Teachers Association, and many others.
An honorary research associate of the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, he is a fellow of the Linnean Society, the Explorers Club, and the Royal Geographical Society.
(Source: National Geographic)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 89 reviews
September 4, 2022
RTC - read last week but need to review
I can see the appeal. It just wasn't for me or for this time. Too many great books recently so I am deliberately waiting to review when I gather my thoughts
I can see the appeal. It just wasn't for me or for this time. Too many great books recently so I am deliberately waiting to review when I gather my thoughts
June 6, 2023
This is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. It's a deeply thoughtful, provocative perspective on the gifts of indigenous people being destroyed or ignored by the modern world. Wade Davis' prose is excellent and easy to read. I learned so much about native people from every continent (I think) of the world. The author is a man who has extensively traveled and lived with groups I have never heard of before.
Quotes:
"Throughout all of human history, something in the order of ten thousand languages have existed. Today, of the roughly six thousand still spoken, fully half are not being taught to children, meaning that, effectively, they are already dead, and only three hundred are spoken by more than a million people. Only six hundred languages are considered by linguists to be stable and secure."
"Worldwide, perhaps as many as four thousand languages remain inadequately described. The cost of properly doing so has been estimated by linguists at $800 million, roughly the price of a single Aegis Class navy destroyer."
"Less than one percent of the world’s flora has been thoroughly studied by science. Much of the fauna remains unknown. Yeta people such as the Haunóo, forest dwellers from the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, recognize more than 450 animals and distinguish 1500 plants, 400 more than are recognized by Western botanists."
"Some botanists suggest that as many as forty thousand species of plants may have medicinal or nutritional properties, a potential that in many instances has already been realized by indigenous healers."
"In this book I refer to perhaps thirty cultures, discussing at some length a mere fourteen. There remain another fourteen thousand to visit and celebrate if only there were time."
Quotes:
"Throughout all of human history, something in the order of ten thousand languages have existed. Today, of the roughly six thousand still spoken, fully half are not being taught to children, meaning that, effectively, they are already dead, and only three hundred are spoken by more than a million people. Only six hundred languages are considered by linguists to be stable and secure."
"Worldwide, perhaps as many as four thousand languages remain inadequately described. The cost of properly doing so has been estimated by linguists at $800 million, roughly the price of a single Aegis Class navy destroyer."
"Less than one percent of the world’s flora has been thoroughly studied by science. Much of the fauna remains unknown. Yeta people such as the Haunóo, forest dwellers from the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, recognize more than 450 animals and distinguish 1500 plants, 400 more than are recognized by Western botanists."
"Some botanists suggest that as many as forty thousand species of plants may have medicinal or nutritional properties, a potential that in many instances has already been realized by indigenous healers."
"In this book I refer to perhaps thirty cultures, discussing at some length a mere fourteen. There remain another fourteen thousand to visit and celebrate if only there were time."
June 16, 2017
I've read K. David Harrison's two books on endangered languages, When Languages Die and The Last Speakers, and I think I would place Wade Davis's book, Light at the Edge of the World, in that same vein. Both Davis and Harrison employ anecdotes from their own research and interactions with other scholars and members of the indigenous communities to which they refer in their respective books. This, in my opinion, serves to further highlight the human element of language & culture endangerment. They both use the unique characteristics of each culture & language mentioned in order to persuade their readers of their importance in contributing to human knowledge and complexifying the human experience. A major difference which I noted between Davis and Harrison is that Davis, being an anthropologist and ethnobotanist focuses primarily on endangered cultures, whereas Harrison, a linguist, concentrates more on language endangerment. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in linguistics, cultural anthropology, or [ethno]botany, particularly in the context of minority cultures.
November 8, 2009
Wade Davis uses words well. I still haven't forgotten the "cloak of conformity" that he describes falling over the indigenous people he writes about. He takes us to Tibet, Australia, the Inuit lands, the Amazon, Africa, and Indonesia. He has friends in these places, people that trust him and his good intentions. He calls the the world an ethnosphere--a sphere of people groups, amazing in in its diversity. I learned a lot from this book--about the despair and demoralization of so many robbed of their cultures. And about the hope and work and faith of those fighting to preserve those same cultures. There is so much to learn from the ancient wisdom, so much for us to learn. Davis doesn't advocate for people to be left in the Stone Age. He knows that's impossible. But he fights for the right of these people to be in control of their own transition--not into our world--but into a world where they can incorporate parts of the surrounding cultures into their own and reject what they don't want. He's found examples of people doing just that. It's isn't a choice of 100% old ways or 100% new ways, but just acknowledging that cultures are always evolving and changing and it's the members of those cultures that should control how, not outside governments, corportations, or missionaries.
The arrogance and ignorance of the Europeans who made initial contact with these people is astounding, but not surprising. So often they were perceived as savages to be enslaved, civilized, eduacated. Non-humans to be obliterated. The ancient wisdom was not ignored--that would require an initial awareness of the wisdom and a consious decision to ignore it. The "civilized" white people weren't capable of even that.
The book does end with hope. Much has been lost, but much has been preserved, resurrected, strengthened.
I'm glad I read this book.
The arrogance and ignorance of the Europeans who made initial contact with these people is astounding, but not surprising. So often they were perceived as savages to be enslaved, civilized, eduacated. Non-humans to be obliterated. The ancient wisdom was not ignored--that would require an initial awareness of the wisdom and a consious decision to ignore it. The "civilized" white people weren't capable of even that.
The book does end with hope. Much has been lost, but much has been preserved, resurrected, strengthened.
I'm glad I read this book.
July 27, 2008
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.
I have had the great opportunity to see Dr. Davis speak twice at the National Geographic Society in DC, both times sharing stories and research in Peru. His insights have enriched my travels, and reading this book made me long for Peru even more!
I have had the great opportunity to see Dr. Davis speak twice at the National Geographic Society in DC, both times sharing stories and research in Peru. His insights have enriched my travels, and reading this book made me long for Peru even more!
August 1, 2015
I loved this book. Light at the Edge of the World is written by anthropologist and ethnobiologist Wade Davis. It is a beautifully written reflection on the importance of indigenous cultures in our world and the dangers of extinctions these cultures face. One language vanishes every 2 weeks when it's last speaker dies. I can't imagine being the last of my tribe, unable to communicate and share knowledge. When cultures die we lose knowledge as a whole. They take their understandings of scientifically undiscovered plants with them, their traditions, world history and so much more. "These people, with their dreams and prayers, their myths and memories, teach us that there are indeed other ways of being, alternative visions of life, birth, death and creation itself. When asked the meaning of being human, they respond with ten thousand different voices. It is within this diversity of knowledge and practice, of intuition and interpretation, of promise and hope, that we will all rediscover the enchantment of being what we are, a conscious species aware of our place on the planet and fully capable of not only doing no harm but ensuring that all creatures in every garden find a way to flourish." This book makes me want to playfully explore the world and lose my ethnocentric world view.
February 23, 2012
This was a great book to get through in 2 days. Wade Davis is an ethnobotonist. I had never heard that term before. He puts it that the ethnosphere is like the ecosphere, but with human culture.
As people argue successfully for the preservation of endangered animals and plants, Davis also argues for the preservation of endangered cultures. Or rather, the lessening of overwhelming force against them so that they be allowed to adapt or assimilate as desired.
He points out the vast scope of human intellect and memory and cunning that we lose when a culture that has evolved along its own path is squashed out. I think the closest I ever got to perceiving this idea when I was in school was learning how eskimos have so many words for snow, and how they measure their wealth in friends rather than dollars. But that is such a superficial example.
Cultures that can correctly and consistently identify hundreds of kinds of trees by the sounds that they make when the wind blows through them aren't magic, or faking it - they're f-ing amazing listeners and observers.
It's both comforting to know that this culture isn't the only one still around, and sad to wonder how soon it will be.
As people argue successfully for the preservation of endangered animals and plants, Davis also argues for the preservation of endangered cultures. Or rather, the lessening of overwhelming force against them so that they be allowed to adapt or assimilate as desired.
He points out the vast scope of human intellect and memory and cunning that we lose when a culture that has evolved along its own path is squashed out. I think the closest I ever got to perceiving this idea when I was in school was learning how eskimos have so many words for snow, and how they measure their wealth in friends rather than dollars. But that is such a superficial example.
Cultures that can correctly and consistently identify hundreds of kinds of trees by the sounds that they make when the wind blows through them aren't magic, or faking it - they're f-ing amazing listeners and observers.
It's both comforting to know that this culture isn't the only one still around, and sad to wonder how soon it will be.
January 5, 2015
I've been a fan of Wade Davis for a long time, and this book is a beautiful over-view of his work and perspectives. Fairly succinct essays are accompanied by photography and the whole package has made me want to do a lot of deeper reading into the cultures and ways of living touched on here. If you've ever thought that the loss of the world's languages is no big deal or that it doesn't matter if indigenous cultures are subsumed into our technologically driven "modern" world, then you need to read this book right now. And there's just a lot of unbelievably interesting stuff in here. Did you know that the Inuit can make functional knives out of their own frozen feces? Neither did I. And that's only one of a million ways that they make their frozen landscape work for them instead of against them. Crazy! This book felt like a really fantastic undergraduate lecture. It only scratches the surface of a huge topic, but it's an excellent introduction that doesn't have a dull moment.
April 11, 2020
When you know a bit about some of the subjects of a book and see that the author is twisting the truth, it begs the question of whether one can trust his statements about the other subjects.
The Haitian example stands out. Davis discusses a man who was turned into a "zombie." He has no qualms whatsoever about people taking justice into their own hands, stating flat out that the victim was unpopular with the society. That is what vigilantism is--and that should be unacceptable to anyone.
Davis also cannot bring himself to say that the monks of Tibet took up arms against the Chinese, although he tells the rest of the tale leaving out that one important fact.
I understand he has a political agenda in writing this book--and one with which I agree! But one has to state the facts clearly and be honest with the reader. But since he did not, I am not confident that I can trust his other stories either.
The Haitian example stands out. Davis discusses a man who was turned into a "zombie." He has no qualms whatsoever about people taking justice into their own hands, stating flat out that the victim was unpopular with the society. That is what vigilantism is--and that should be unacceptable to anyone.
Davis also cannot bring himself to say that the monks of Tibet took up arms against the Chinese, although he tells the rest of the tale leaving out that one important fact.
I understand he has a political agenda in writing this book--and one with which I agree! But one has to state the facts clearly and be honest with the reader. But since he did not, I am not confident that I can trust his other stories either.
March 17, 2008
This book was amazing. I stayed up almost all night reading it.
It looks at many cultures that are on the brink of extinction. There
is so much depth to this book even though it looks only briefly at
these various peoples. I myself an extremely interested in nomadic cultures and the specific skill sets they have acquired to live in what seems like hostel environments to me. The book doesn't dwell on the idea that technology and our modern system is wrong. It just argues that people of this planet should have a right to choose if they want to be involved in the systems that are in place right now. People should not have been forced into extinction because of colonialism, political will or because of power hungry corporations that are ripping up the earth and in effect destroying the land on which people sustain themselves and their children.
It looks at many cultures that are on the brink of extinction. There
is so much depth to this book even though it looks only briefly at
these various peoples. I myself an extremely interested in nomadic cultures and the specific skill sets they have acquired to live in what seems like hostel environments to me. The book doesn't dwell on the idea that technology and our modern system is wrong. It just argues that people of this planet should have a right to choose if they want to be involved in the systems that are in place right now. People should not have been forced into extinction because of colonialism, political will or because of power hungry corporations that are ripping up the earth and in effect destroying the land on which people sustain themselves and their children.
June 1, 2012
After an unconvincing start, a bit slow and sometimes emphatic, this book becomes very engaging. Wade Davis tells about the diversity of humanity, its multiple cultures with their values, traditions and original interpretations of reality all striving to imagine a meaning for life. A variety of visions that seriously risks to disappear, overcome by the western culture, predominant because strong of its technical achievements too often greedily employed for materialistic purposes. Diversity, the ability to implement different strategies and adapt to different environments and situations is the base of evolution, both biological and cultural. The loss of cultural diversity would thus represent not only an impoverishment for our mind and spirit but also a danger for our survival. Touching and fascinating.
September 4, 2017
I thought this book was well written and had engaging prose. I finished in three readings and had a hard time putting the book down; a feat of non-fiction writing if there was ever one. Through powerful anecdotes and a refreshing and un-nostalgic perspective on the fates of the worlds indigenous cultures, he does a damning job at critiquing the Western and paternalistic arrogance commonly directed towards the world's indigenous cultures. His central thesis that the enthnosphere, like the biosphere, is being decimated by identifiable forces, and these peoples are not failed attempts at being human was powerfully rendered in each chapter. I recommend this book as an antidote to western exceptionalism and pompous humanism.
September 4, 2017
I have always enjoyed Wade Davis's writing, starting all the way back to The Serpent and the Rainbow. These essays show a refreshing combination of anthropology, science, and a fearlessly intuitive, even metaphysical view of human kind. It's an uncommon perspective uniquely suited to Davis' writing style, which is clear, accomplished and often simply beautiful. I look forward to reading a lot more of his work.
March 10, 2018
With decades of ethnographic experience across different places, this is a profound book that highlights the diversity of the world and points to how it is quickly disappearing. Highly recommend if you like storytelling and insider looks into foreign places that have their own unique ways of viewing the world. This counters the modern-traditional dichotomies and really instilled the importance of diversity for me as something we should explicitly to cherish and maintain.
April 19, 2018
Wonder at the diversity of human culture
Davis presents the great adversity of human cultures in this short book. It's easy read and you learn so much about native people from every continent of the world in which humanity has staked a claim The book tells of some very tragic cultural atrocities, but I think it ends on a high note with the creation of Nunavut.
Davis presents the great adversity of human cultures in this short book. It's easy read and you learn so much about native people from every continent of the world in which humanity has staked a claim The book tells of some very tragic cultural atrocities, but I think it ends on a high note with the creation of Nunavut.
Want to read
October 23, 2013Lol my biopharm prof recommended Wade Davis :3 lol sooo..yeah....
January 24, 2023
“Light at the Edge of the World” by Wade Davis is a captivating book about the challenges humanity currently faces regarding the loss of culture and diversity. Through his travels worldwide, Davis explores the ongoing issues that smaller communities are met with, ultimately revealing how the distinction of cultures emotionally and physically affects future generations. However, this trauma also heavily impacts older generations because they are torn away from their past and placed in an “uncertain future” where society is forced to battle detrimental changes in the world; climate change, the distinction of languages and cultures, etc.
Throughout the book, there were many moments that made me pause to think about the circumstances of the events and the terrifying challenges different cultures struggled with. However, out of all of these moments, one quote really resonated with me because of the realism in the information:
“Though their populations are small, these cultures account for 60 per cent of the
world’s languages and collectively represent over half of the intellectual legacy of humanity. Yet increasingly, their voices are being silenced, their unique visions of life itself lost in a whirlwind of change and conflict” (Davis 6).
Something I learned and found quite saddening was how many smaller cultures silently went distinct and were unnoticed (or perhaps ignored) by the entire world. This shows how marginalized smaller communities were. I liked how the book displays a truthful perspective that highlights the harsh realities and fears faced by different cultures and histories. This insightful read emphasizes the consequences faced by humanity as society becomes a “monochromatic world” that constantly fails to revise the issues. His thoughts about the changing environment suggest that the world is inevitably facing detrimental effects that we humans inflicted.
If I had to describe this book, I would say it is very insightful and realistic because of the nature of the events Davis explores and discovers. I recommend this book to everyone because I think it is essential for people to understand the ongoing issues different parts of the world face, especially third-world countries because they are more susceptible to the loss of culture, diversity, and history. These factors are defining features that make every person unique and it is crucial to uphold their existence.
Throughout the book, there were many moments that made me pause to think about the circumstances of the events and the terrifying challenges different cultures struggled with. However, out of all of these moments, one quote really resonated with me because of the realism in the information:
“Though their populations are small, these cultures account for 60 per cent of the
world’s languages and collectively represent over half of the intellectual legacy of humanity. Yet increasingly, their voices are being silenced, their unique visions of life itself lost in a whirlwind of change and conflict” (Davis 6).
Something I learned and found quite saddening was how many smaller cultures silently went distinct and were unnoticed (or perhaps ignored) by the entire world. This shows how marginalized smaller communities were. I liked how the book displays a truthful perspective that highlights the harsh realities and fears faced by different cultures and histories. This insightful read emphasizes the consequences faced by humanity as society becomes a “monochromatic world” that constantly fails to revise the issues. His thoughts about the changing environment suggest that the world is inevitably facing detrimental effects that we humans inflicted.
If I had to describe this book, I would say it is very insightful and realistic because of the nature of the events Davis explores and discovers. I recommend this book to everyone because I think it is essential for people to understand the ongoing issues different parts of the world face, especially third-world countries because they are more susceptible to the loss of culture, diversity, and history. These factors are defining features that make every person unique and it is crucial to uphold their existence.
January 20, 2020
Wade Davis is a good writer and he does a great job of inserting the reader briefly into a variety of cultures. His photos are interesting and relevant to the text.
I keep thinking that in seeking to learn more of others, some of us ignore or fail to observe our own worlds and cultures. Even that sentence reinforces the idea of "us" and "other." Makes me want to read about "my" culture from an "outside" perspective.
While the losses of peoples and continuing patterns of habitat destruction, forced resettlement, and institutionalized education remain distressing, I also feel hope in the greater ebb and flow of human society. That is, the industrial age is just a speck, and is clearly not sustainable.
I keep thinking that in seeking to learn more of others, some of us ignore or fail to observe our own worlds and cultures. Even that sentence reinforces the idea of "us" and "other." Makes me want to read about "my" culture from an "outside" perspective.
While the losses of peoples and continuing patterns of habitat destruction, forced resettlement, and institutionalized education remain distressing, I also feel hope in the greater ebb and flow of human society. That is, the industrial age is just a speck, and is clearly not sustainable.
December 27, 2021
A delightful and tragic read. The emphasis Davis gives to spirituality, insight, intuition, intelligence and imagination of the people he meets is illuminating. His hypothesis about the fundamental contributions of the first peoples is right on.
My main issue while reading was not hearing the women’s voices. They were mostly presented in the distance as the wives of. Mostly passive protagonists. The book is really focussed on the lives of the men Davis meets : the hunters, the warriors, the Shamans… As such an insightful writer, I would’ve love to read more about the inner realms and visions of the women also participating in these worlds at the edge.
My main issue while reading was not hearing the women’s voices. They were mostly presented in the distance as the wives of. Mostly passive protagonists. The book is really focussed on the lives of the men Davis meets : the hunters, the warriors, the Shamans… As such an insightful writer, I would’ve love to read more about the inner realms and visions of the women also participating in these worlds at the edge.
October 4, 2022
Brilliant. Favourite quote: “The triumph of secular materialism is the conceit of modernity.” The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars, is because there is a sense of romanticism of indigenous cultures that have been destroyed or harmed by colonial ones. Yes, Western cultures can be accused of hubris, arrogance, superiority and violence, but to say one is better than another is risky. His final paragraph redeems this and he suggests that we would be better advised to embrace diversity and make space for indigenous cultures to contribute to progress.
July 7, 2024
Listened to the audiobook created by the CNIB in Toronto.
Wade Davis explores tribes off the grid and their use of intoxicating drugs derived from plants.
Kind of Castaneda but without the made up interdimensional travel.
The actual book contains photos which are described for the non-viewing listener.
Interesting to know that primitive cultures used cocaine so much.
The book also covers how fragile the groups are with modern intrusions even well intended.
Leaves you feeling hopeless about our future.
Wade Davis explores tribes off the grid and their use of intoxicating drugs derived from plants.
Kind of Castaneda but without the made up interdimensional travel.
The actual book contains photos which are described for the non-viewing listener.
Interesting to know that primitive cultures used cocaine so much.
The book also covers how fragile the groups are with modern intrusions even well intended.
Leaves you feeling hopeless about our future.
September 17, 2020
I have never read a book that has touched as much as this book, I just wish I had known more about Anthroplogy before I left school I would certainly studied it. I can't believe that more people
believe why more people don't study it as it for us a much better understanding of the human race. Brilliant is all I candy a out this book. His writing is sublime and his understanding is out of this world. Peter Sands
believe why more people don't study it as it for us a much better understanding of the human race. Brilliant is all I candy a out this book. His writing is sublime and his understanding is out of this world. Peter Sands
August 4, 2022
An excellent book, but let me plug Davis' website here for a moment, too: (https://daviswade.com/) you can see his photography on there, from his various travels, as well as watch documentaries he's been a part of, for free. It's a really interesting resource for anyone wanting to do some more ruminating on the topic.
December 14, 2023
A fun touristy overview of anthropology. Davis is real af, but doesn't really come through as such in the book. I think that real full ethnographies are more interesting, since they go much deeper into societies and how they work, but this is still a really good midpoint between academic ethnography and Ripplies Believe it or Not.
April 30, 2019
Davis is an anthropologist and an ethnobotanist. In this book he talks about vanishing Indigenous cultures and the plants they use for ceremonial, medicinal and spiritual purposes. Rather thought provoking.
October 2, 2019
Well done. Davis grapples with the questions of vanishing cultures in a considered way making this more than a coffee table picture book. I'd recommend it as an introduction to appreciating vanishing cultures.
August 17, 2020
Looking to feel ashamed? This one’s for you; cry along with the ethnocide of cultures throughout the world. Not your father’s ethnocide, but modern day. Brilliantly written, one can speculate that the nomads in Alaska are next , thanks to today’s legislation. Thanks Mr.T. *****
January 16, 2022
Wade Davis is a beautiful writer. The stories of the peoples and cultures he has studied are mostly heartbreaking, in that they are disappearing like so many species off our planet.
It's non-fiction so a little slower a read than mysteries and romance. 😊
It's non-fiction so a little slower a read than mysteries and romance. 😊
October 26, 2023
Wade Davis is definitely not a writer, but this was a really interesting read for a school assigned book. I loved how it was set up in little stories about different indigenous cultures that Davis experienced - it made it super easy to read, just wasn’t wrapped up together skillfully.
October 12, 2015
It seems appropriate to be writing this review on Indigenous Peoples Day, otherwise known as Columbus Day, since Light at the Edge of the World is a quick tour through some of Wade Davis’s encounters with, and reflections on, the lives of a dozen or so groups of people still living more or less traditionally in the face of globalization.
Whether hunting for hallucinogens with the Barasana in the Amazon basin and the Kogi in the mountains of Colombia, or for seal with the Inuit in the Arctic, Davis is filled both with admiration for the nuances of tribal life and with a well-justified indignation about the arrogant insensitivities, cruelties, and outright genocides inflicted by outsiders, all the way from Columbus to (for example) modern Australian and Canadian governments.
To the common cry that so many of the world’s languages are becoming extinct, he adds the same argument for traditional cultures, and he claims plausibly that the cause of this “ethnocide” is, again and again, not some inevitable tide of “the future” but deliberate, decisions by ignorant and/or corrupt outsiders—principally colonial invaders, missionaries, miners, and proudly modernizing central governments.
It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking travelogue, with however too much emphasis on pop simplification and an appeal to the emotions. There’s no index, and there are relatively few raw facts; more annoyingly, there are no maps, and this adds to an odd lack of specificity that makes very different places and peoples run together in at least this reader’s mind.
Davis often combines superb writing with scholarly depth and care (see Into the Silence for example), so it’s surprising that part of the problem with this book is a breathless, overwrought style that tempts you to wonder how much he knows and how much he has merely assumed. (I was reminded of Margaret Mead being told tall stories in Samoa.) No tribal member ever seems to just notice that Davis has shown up: more portentously, as if he might be a spirit from another “realm,” they “await” him. Nothing is ever found or discovered, only “encountered.” No Peruvian ritual can have been going on for anything so prosaic as a long time; it has to have been (not “like this,” but) “thus” since (not “the beginning of,” but) “the very dawn” of Andean civilization. “The very essence;” “but a part of”; these portentous, ill-chosen modifiers litter the text; they make you feel that you’re being constantly nudged in case ("lest"?) you exhibit signs of awe-fatigue. And it’s downright hard to keep tribes and locations straight when every river, tree, mountain, bird, ritual, and drink we are introduced to has to be gilded with the adjective “sacred.”
The incessant use of that word, in particular, raises several questions the author doesn’t pause to consider here. Is ‘sacredness’ always the same or essentially the same thing in all these cases? Is Davis always right in his identification of ‘sacredness’? (What is his evidence?) And what are his informants’ attitudes to the birds, mountains or whatever that they don’t consider ‘sacred,’ if there are any—or do the Rendille and the Waorani even eat and pee on a heightened mystical plane? Ironically, there‘s a strong whiff of ethnocentrism here: being awe-struck by the magical minds of the locals can so easily be a form of condescension.
Only towards the end of the book, in a searing short chapter on China in Tibet, does Davis engage seriously, and all too briefly, with the ethnologist’s Hard Question—is “traditional” life actually better? As he points out, the Dalai Lama and his monks were hated by many Tibetans, and with good reason, even if the Chinese cure was so much worse than the disease; as he also hints elsewhere, we’re good at romanticizing life in the jungle while knowing perfectly well that we would do anything to avoid living in an environment dominated by violent struggle, dangerous animals, malaria, and constant terror of retribution by evil spirits that don’t in fact exist.
In response to this, the argument Davis (very briefly) develops is that there’s a key distinction between policies under which indigenous people are respected, and choose whether and how to adapt and change, and policies under which it is assumed by culturally ignorant racists that they’re too primitive to know what’s good for them. True enough. And in fairness, this book is only meant to be a toe-dip into a vast topic. As he says, “in this book I make reference to perhaps thirty cultures, discussing at some length a mere fourteen. There remain another fourteen thousand to visit and celebrate, if only there were time.” But, as well as all that visiting and celebrating, there’s also much more to be said about what to do, and not do, and it would have been nice to hear him say more about that.
Perchance such a book awaits us. And perchance its sacred message will be conveyed into the very essence of our being. But in a plainer style, I hope: then we’ll feel we’re being offered sound information, and not merely an invitation to indulge our most romantic existing sentiments.
Whether hunting for hallucinogens with the Barasana in the Amazon basin and the Kogi in the mountains of Colombia, or for seal with the Inuit in the Arctic, Davis is filled both with admiration for the nuances of tribal life and with a well-justified indignation about the arrogant insensitivities, cruelties, and outright genocides inflicted by outsiders, all the way from Columbus to (for example) modern Australian and Canadian governments.
To the common cry that so many of the world’s languages are becoming extinct, he adds the same argument for traditional cultures, and he claims plausibly that the cause of this “ethnocide” is, again and again, not some inevitable tide of “the future” but deliberate, decisions by ignorant and/or corrupt outsiders—principally colonial invaders, missionaries, miners, and proudly modernizing central governments.
It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking travelogue, with however too much emphasis on pop simplification and an appeal to the emotions. There’s no index, and there are relatively few raw facts; more annoyingly, there are no maps, and this adds to an odd lack of specificity that makes very different places and peoples run together in at least this reader’s mind.
Davis often combines superb writing with scholarly depth and care (see Into the Silence for example), so it’s surprising that part of the problem with this book is a breathless, overwrought style that tempts you to wonder how much he knows and how much he has merely assumed. (I was reminded of Margaret Mead being told tall stories in Samoa.) No tribal member ever seems to just notice that Davis has shown up: more portentously, as if he might be a spirit from another “realm,” they “await” him. Nothing is ever found or discovered, only “encountered.” No Peruvian ritual can have been going on for anything so prosaic as a long time; it has to have been (not “like this,” but) “thus” since (not “the beginning of,” but) “the very dawn” of Andean civilization. “The very essence;” “but a part of”; these portentous, ill-chosen modifiers litter the text; they make you feel that you’re being constantly nudged in case ("lest"?) you exhibit signs of awe-fatigue. And it’s downright hard to keep tribes and locations straight when every river, tree, mountain, bird, ritual, and drink we are introduced to has to be gilded with the adjective “sacred.”
The incessant use of that word, in particular, raises several questions the author doesn’t pause to consider here. Is ‘sacredness’ always the same or essentially the same thing in all these cases? Is Davis always right in his identification of ‘sacredness’? (What is his evidence?) And what are his informants’ attitudes to the birds, mountains or whatever that they don’t consider ‘sacred,’ if there are any—or do the Rendille and the Waorani even eat and pee on a heightened mystical plane? Ironically, there‘s a strong whiff of ethnocentrism here: being awe-struck by the magical minds of the locals can so easily be a form of condescension.
Only towards the end of the book, in a searing short chapter on China in Tibet, does Davis engage seriously, and all too briefly, with the ethnologist’s Hard Question—is “traditional” life actually better? As he points out, the Dalai Lama and his monks were hated by many Tibetans, and with good reason, even if the Chinese cure was so much worse than the disease; as he also hints elsewhere, we’re good at romanticizing life in the jungle while knowing perfectly well that we would do anything to avoid living in an environment dominated by violent struggle, dangerous animals, malaria, and constant terror of retribution by evil spirits that don’t in fact exist.
In response to this, the argument Davis (very briefly) develops is that there’s a key distinction between policies under which indigenous people are respected, and choose whether and how to adapt and change, and policies under which it is assumed by culturally ignorant racists that they’re too primitive to know what’s good for them. True enough. And in fairness, this book is only meant to be a toe-dip into a vast topic. As he says, “in this book I make reference to perhaps thirty cultures, discussing at some length a mere fourteen. There remain another fourteen thousand to visit and celebrate, if only there were time.” But, as well as all that visiting and celebrating, there’s also much more to be said about what to do, and not do, and it would have been nice to hear him say more about that.
Perchance such a book awaits us. And perchance its sacred message will be conveyed into the very essence of our being. But in a plainer style, I hope: then we’ll feel we’re being offered sound information, and not merely an invitation to indulge our most romantic existing sentiments.
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