The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

Anthropology was probably one of the driest general requirements courses that I suffered through in college. But when I heard Wade Davis speak on the TED website (http://www.ted.com), he piqued my interest in what he termed the "ethnosphere." His National Geographic travels take him to the far reaches of the globe. He has a keen sense of the rare riches found in the value that indigenous tribes have for nature. Its not that I buy into the deities of mountains or the forest and skies, but I certainly value the ecosystems on this planet. His concern for climate change and its impact on these harmless ancient societies highlights our arrogance that the resources they worship are merely our free raw materials for the taking.
Wade Davis show more writes well of past misconceptions about just how primitive aboriginal tribes lived hundreds and even thousands of years ago. His representations in this book help set the tone for thoughts of our own greed and seemingly endless quest to destroy the earth that sustains us. A humbling read. show less

Very eye-opening book on the wisdom of other cultures and our western hubris in ignoring them. Mostly absorbing, but he goes on a little too long in some spots. Very worthwhile.

Very convincing argument for elevating the pre-modern cultures. The first half or so dealing Polynesians gives light to what remarkable skills they developed, and how Orientalist treated what they couldn't understand.

It doesn't shy away from what we may find troubling in some practices in ancient traditions, and why we may want to not always jump to "fixing" it.

This is a wide-ranging and interesting discussion by anthropologist Wade Davis on various cultures from all over the world and what they may be able to teach us before they are wiped out by the inexorable march of our technology- and energy-driven “modern” society. The book’s origins as a series of lectures for the CBC do show through and give it more of an anecdotal style rather than the reasoned academic exposition the reader might expect. I found, however, that the author’s repeated laments over the destruction of languages and cultures gave the book a bit of a whiny tone. He never addresses the root problem, which is that if you are going to support six or seven billion people on the planet, you are going to end up with a show more much different relationship between humans and their environment than you had when there were only a million hunter-gatherers or a few hundred million farmers. Many (although not all) of the “other” cultures he discusses made sustainable use of the resources around them, but most were also sparse upon the land in terms of numbers. But even with our bloated population, there are lessons here that would help us make better use of the resources we need to survive. show less

After a poor series in 2008, I was worried that the 2009 Masseys would be disappointing as well. Fortunately, they're back to the quality that I've come to expect from them.

The first four lectures in this book describe different cultures, including the bushmen of the Kalahari, Polynesians wayfinders, and South American "Amazons". Each lecture is interesting in and of itself but the book's secondary title, "Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World" is only brought to the foreground in the final lecture, which ties the lectures together more cohesively and puts out a call to action for their preservation.

A bit meandering, but full of interesting stories about people and cultures from out-of-the-way places.

Also touching upon language but including multiple cultures and obscure cultural techniques and "other ways of knowing" such as polynesian navigation, ayhuasca etc.
Wonderful book. Easy to read but dense. Should be twice as thick and go more into detail.