Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ethnographer and anthropologist Davis extends his urgent inquiry into the ethos of diverse and imperiled indigenous cultures in his latest trenchant disquisition. Stressing the importance of preserving not only nature but also cultures that have for millennia inspired people to live ecologically sustainable lives, Davis, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, voyages with a Polynesian wayfinder skilled in the ancient art of navigation based solely on reading the sky, wind, and ocean. The wayfinder's deep concentration, phenomenal memory, and extraordinary use of dead reckoning You only know where you are by knowing precisely where you have been and how you got to where you are set the paradigm for this book of wonders. As Davis visits indigenous peoples in the Amazon, the Andes, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Australia, Borneo, and the Arctic, he portrays societies that do not seek to improve upon nature, but to sustain the world. Imagine preservation as a spiritual duty, one's relationship with nature as reciprocal rather than consuming. This defender of the ethnosphere, humankind's collective knowledge, observes that we have reduced our planet to a commodity, but we haven't lost our ingenuity. If we protect these endangered societies, we can learn from them. Davis astonishes and humbles us with his discoveries, insights, and dreams.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
