The Wayfinders
Wade Davis is an explorer of the human spirit and a champion for worldviews as an antidote to our present environmental decline. He takes us on a tour across the world, from the outstanding navigation of ancient Polynesians to the view of interconnectedness through the lens of Andean cultures. In seeking places for hope, for living alternatives to the consumerist and capitalist worldview, this is an excellent book to guide the first steps.
“If diversity is a source of wonder, its opposite – the ubiquitous condensation to some blandly amorphous and singularly generic modern culture that takes for granted an impoverished environment – is a source of dismay. There is, indeed, a fire burning over the earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame, and re-inventing the poetry of diversity is perhaps the most important challenge of our times.”
“The full measure of a culture embraces both the actions of a people and the quality of their aspirations, the nature of the metaphors that propel their lives. And no description of a people can be complete without reference to the character of their homeland, the ecological and geographical matrix in which they have determined to live out their destiny. Just as a landscape defines character, culture springs from a spirit of place.”