Light at the Edge of the World: a Journey through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures. - book review

Whole Earth,  Spring, 2002  

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Text and photographs by Wade Davis 2002; 180 pp. $35 National Geographic Society

This book develops the notion of the ethnosphere which Wade Davis introduces in his essay. The light at the edge of the world is cast by a shrinking number of tenuous flames--the Cree and Ojibwa, the Xerente and Kayapo, the Waorani and the Penan--remote enclaves of cultural brilliance from the 300 million indigenous people who speak 60 percent of the world's languages and who are being driven to extinction at a staggering rate. These are people still so connected to the rhythms and textures and flavors of the Earth that, as Davis says, "There is no separation between the spirit and the crude proximity of everyday life." The author weaves stories from twenty-five years of research and travel among people (whom we too often called "primitive") whose elaborate knowledge and profound wisdom are unknown or unvalued by most of the rest of the world. This is an enormously important, gorgeously written book. The stunning photographs bring the verbal descriptions of ritual and daily practice to life. --DB

COPYRIGHT 2002 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group