The Wayfinders Wade Davis Discussion Essay

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Wade Davis’s talk “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World” covers topics like paradigm shifts and advancements in human consciousness. Davis also talks about the fiction of race and the genetic unity of all human beings. Using an anthropological approach, Davis shows how different cultures throughout time have always developed deep wisdom. Davis’s premise is that human wisdom is not linear or even progressive. Every culture is a “unique answer to a fundamental question,” states Davis. The Eurocentric view of the world is that “primitive” societies need to advance via urbanization or technological modernization, and this attitude has led to devastating results and genocide. Davis discusses dying languages and cultures, claiming that on average every two weeks a language dies. With the death of languages comes the death of culture, and with the death of culture comes the death of wisdom.

Davis is fascinated and in awe of Polynesia, especially the deft navigation skills used by Polynesians to understand their geographic positioning using stars, winds, and ocean patterns. The European explorers used to hug the shores, whereas the Polynesia used dead reckoning—boldly paddling through the Pacific Ocean to discover new islands. The title “The Wayfinders” refers to the Polynesian navigators who found their way through the seas. Then Davis shifts to the Amazon and the Anaconda, and their advanced methods of surviving and thriving in the rainforest.

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Davis, who is from British Columbia, talks about the difference in attitude of his people who cut down the rainforests versus the Amazonian people who understood how to live in harmony with their ecosystems.

The discussion has great implications not only for cross-cultural awareness but also for environmental sustainability. Given the crises besieging the planet and humanity, the need for harmony is more important now than ever. Some of the people in the Andes believe that climate change is actually their “fault,” because they have such a strong sense of personal responsibility for earth custodianship. This sense of responsibility can better inform future political policy and business practices. Davis coins the term “ethnosphere,” to refer to the collective wisdom of humanity disseminated through everything from language and ritual to myth and music. Some of the rituals and rites of passage Davis explicates are fascinating, if for no other reason then it has become difficult to preserve ancient cultures in the age of rapid globalization.

Davis speaks far….....

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