Wade Davis

A scientific investigation and personal adventure story about zombis and the voudoun culture of Haiti by a Harvard scientist.In April 1982, ethnobotanist Wade Davis arrived in Haiti to investigate two documented cases of zombis—people who had reappeared in Haitian society years after they had been officially declared dead and had been buried. Drawn into a netherworld of rituals and celebrations, Davis penetrated the vodoun mystique deeply enough to place zombification in its proper context within vodoun culture. In the course of his investigation, Davis came to realize that the story of vodoun is the history of Haiti—from the African origins of its people to the successful Haitian independence movement, down to the present day, where vodoun culture is, in effect, the government of Haiti’s countryside.The Serpent and the Rainbow combines anthropological investigation with a remarkable personal adventure to illuminate and finally explain a phenomenon that has long fascinated Americans.

A fascinating photographic journey to indigenous cultures around the world by renowned anthropologist Wade Davis.Anthropologist and best-selling author Wade Davis has traveled the world, befriending indigenous peoples on every continent and engaging in their spiritual lives and practices. To him, no culture is primitive--every daily habit, every ritual, every ceremony expresses the human genius. In this book he takes us into the heart of 20 different world cultures, from the ancient salt mines of the Sahara to the icy world of the Inuit, from the pastoral nomads of Mongolia to the dreaming Aboriginals of Australia. Through sensitive text and revealing photos, enter what Davis calls our "ethnosphere": the extraordinary matrix of cultures thriving on this planet.

A magnificent work of history, biography and adventure.If the quest for Mount Everest began as a grand imperial gesture, as redemption for an empire of explorers that had lost the race to the Poles, it ended as a mission of regeneration for a country and a people bled white by war. Of the twenty-six British climbers who, on three expedtions (1921-24), walked 400 miles off the map to find and assault the highest mountain on Earth, twenty had seen the worst of the fighting. Six had been severely wounded, two others nearly died of disease at the Front, one was hospitalized twice with shell shock. Three as army surgeons dealt for the duration with the agonies of the dying. Two lost brothers, killed in action. All had endured the slaughter, the coughing of the guns, the bones and barbed wire, the white faces of the dead.In a monumental work of history and adventure, ten years in the writing, Wade Davis asks not whether George Mallory was the first to reach the summit of Everest, but rather why he kept on climbing on that fateful day. His answer lies in a single phrase uttered by one of the survivors as they retreated from the "The price of life is death." Mallory walked on because for him, as for all of his generation, death was but "a frail barrier that men crossed, smiling and gallant, every day." As climbers they accepted a degree of risk unimaginable before the war. They were not cavalier, but death was no stranger. They had seen so much of it that it had no hold on them. What mattered was how one lived, the moments of being alive.For all of them Everest had become an exalted radiance, a sentinel in the sky, a symbol of hope in a world gone mad.

Every culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? In The Wayfinders, renowned anthropologist, winner of the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures. In Polynesia we set sail with navigators whose ancestors settled the Pacific ten centuries before Christ. In the Amazon we meet the descendants of a true lost civilization, the Peoples of the Anaconda. In the Andes we discover that the earth really is alive, while in Australia we experience Dreamtime, the all-embracing philosophy of the first humans to walk out of Africa. We then travel to Nepal, where we encounter a wisdom hero, a Bodhisattva, who emerges from forty-five years of Buddhist retreat and solitude. And finally we settle in Borneo, where the last rain forest nomads struggle to survive. Understanding the lessons of this journey will be our mission for the next century. For at risk is the human legacy--a vast archive of knowledge and expertise, a catalog of the imagination. Rediscovering a new appreciation for the diversity of the human spirit, as expressed by culture, is among the central challenges of our time.

A captivating new book from Wade Davis--award-winning, bestselling author and photographer, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence for more than a decade-- that brings vividly to life the story of the great Río Magdalena, illuminating Colombia's complex past, present, and future in the processThe Magdalena is the lifeline that runs the length of the nation. For centuries, it allowed Colombians to settle their mountainous, geographically unique region--one of the most challenging on the planet. Colombia's complicated history reflects the beautiful, wild and impossible geography of its largest river: in places, it is placid and calm, in other moments, tortured and unpredictable. A cultural wellspring of music, poetry, and literature, in dark times the Magdalena has also served as the nation's graveyard. As the country enters a momentous period of revitalization, Wade Davis explores the three major sections of the river, alto, medio, and bajo, evoking each singular landscape and the people he meets there in poetic, nuanced writing, accompanied by his own striking photography.At once an absorbing adventure and an inspiring story of hope and redemption, MAGDALENA gives us a rare, kaleidoscopic picture of a nation often reduced to unfair clichés of drug cartels and violence. Through many years of uncertainty, however, the Magdalena never abandoned its people, always returning as a life-giving force, the source of much of the nation's wealth--and its dreams. Seamlessly weaving together memoir, history, and a remarkable tale of a nation rising to bring about transformational change, Wade Davis tells the story of this magnificent river with passion and love, and in doing so, tells the epic story of Colombia.

Recounts the author's education under Richard Evans Schultes, who studied the drug qualities of plants in the Amazon basin, his own journey in his teacher's footsteps, and his witness to the destruction of the rain forest. 25,000 first printing. Tour.

s/t: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing CulturesFor renowned anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, the term “ethnosphere” encompasses the wealth of human diversity and all that traditional cultures have to teach about different ways of living and thinking. In Light at the Edge of the World, Davis—best known for The Serpent and the Rainbow—presents an intimate survey of the ethnosphere in 80 striking photographs taken over the course of his wide exploration. In eloquent accompanying text, Davis takes readers deep into worlds few Westerners will ever experience, worlds that are fading away even as he writes. From the Canadian Arctic and the rain forests of Borneo to the Amazon and the towering mountains of Tibet, readers are awakened to the rituals, beliefs, and lives of the Waorani, the Penan, the Inuit, and many other unique and endangered traditional cultures. The result is a haunting and enlightening realization of the limitless potential of the human imagination of life. While globalization has become the battle cry of the 21st century, Davis's magisterial work points out that the erosion of the ethnosphere will diminish us all. “The human imagination is vast, fluid, infinite in its capacity for social and spiritual invention,” he writes, and reminds us that “there are other means of interpreting our existence, other ways of being.”

"One of the intense pleasures of travel is the opportunity to live among people who have not forgotten the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind, touch it in stones polished by rain, recognize its taste in the bitter leaves of plants."In this riveting collection of stories and essays, gifted scientist, anthropologist, and writer Wade Davis offers a captivating look at indigenous cultures around the world--from the nomadic Penan of Malaysia to the Vodoun practitioners of Haiti--and a poetic, timely examination of the rapport between humans and the natural world. Traveling from the mountains of Tibet to the jungles of the Amazon, Davis delves into the mysteries of shamanic healing, experiences first-hand hallucinogenic plants, explores the vanishing Borneo rain forests, and describes the ingenuity of the Inuit as they hunt narwhale on the Arctic ice.A compelling and utterly unique celebration of the beauty and diversity of our planet, Shadows in the Sun is about landscape and character, the wisdom of lives drawn directly from the land, and the hunger of those who seek to rediscover such understanding. Davis shows that preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is as important as preserving endangered plants and animals--and vital to our understanding of who we are.

Plugged by no fewer than twenty-five dams, the Colorado is the world’s most regulated river drainage, providing most of the water supply of Las Vegas, Tucson, and San Diego, and much of the power and water of Los Angeles and Phoenix, cities that are home to more than 25 million people. If it ceased flowing, the water held in its reservoirs might hold out for three to four years, but after that it would be necessary to abandon most of southern California and Arizona, and much of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. For the entire American Southwest the Colorado is indeed the river of life, which makes it all the more tragic and ironic that by the time it approaches its final destination, it has been reduced to a shadow upon the sand, its delta dry and deserted, its flow a toxic trickle seeping into the sea. In this remarkable blend of history, science, and personal observation, acclaimed author Wade Davis tells the story of America’s Nile, how it once flowed freely and how human intervention has left it near exhaustion, altering the water temperature, volume, local species, and shoreline of the river Theodore Roosevelt once urged us to “leave it as it is.” Yet despite a century of human interference, Davis writes, the splendor of the Colorado lives on in the river’s remaining wild rapids, quiet pools, and sweeping canyons. The story of the Colorado River is the human quest for progress and its inevitable if unintended effects—and an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and foster the rebirth of America’s most iconic waterway. A beautifully told story of historical adventure and natural beauty, River Notes is a fascinating journey down the river and through mankind’s complicated and destructive relationship with one of its greatest natural resources.

In 1982, Harvard-trained ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled into the Haitian countryside to research reports of zombies--the infamous living dead of Haitian folklore. A report by a team of physicians of a verifiable case of zombification led him to try to obtain the poison associated with the process and examine it for potential medical use.Interdisciplinary in nature, this study reveals a network of power relations reaching all levels of Haitian political life. It sheds light on recent Haitian political history, including the meteoric rise under Duvalier of the Tonton Macoute. By explaining zombification as a rational process within the context of traditional Vodoun society, Davis demystifies one of the most exploited of folk beliefs, one that has been used to denigrate an entire people and their religion.

s/t: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans SchultesRichard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) was probably the greatest explorer of the Amazon, and regarded among anthropologists and seekers alike as the "father of ethnobotany." Taking what was meant to be a short leave from Harvard in 1941, he surveyed the Amazon basin almost continuously for twelve years, during which time he lived among two dozen different Indian tribes, mapped rivers, secretly sought sources of rubber for the US government during WWII, and collected and classified 30,000 botanical specimens, including 2,000 new medicinal plants. Schultes chronicled his stay there in hundreds of remarkable photographs of the tribes and the land, evocative of the great documentary photographers such as Edward Sheriff Curtis. Published to coincide with a traveling exhibition to debut at the Govinda Gallery in Washington, D.C., The Lost Amazon is the first major publication to examine the work of Dr. Schultes, as seen through his photographs and field notes. With text by Schultes's protege and fellow explorer, Wade Davis, this impressive document takes armchair travelers where they've never gone before.

“Wade Davis is a true wayfinder, and these essays offer new insight into his visionary approach to culture, landscape, and the planet he loves as fiercely as any writer working today.”—John Vaillant, author of Fire WeatherA timely and eclectic collection from one of the foremost thinkers of our time, “a powerful, penetrating and immensely knowledgeable writer” (The Guardian).The essays in this collection came about during the unhurried months when one who had traveled incessantly was obliged to stay still, even as events flared on all sides in a world that never stops moving. Wade Davis brings his unique cultural perspective to such varied topics as the demonization of coca, the sacred plant of the Inca; the Great War and the birth of modernity; the British conquest of Everest; the endless conflict in the Middle East; reaching beyond climate fear and trepidation; on the meaning of the sacred. His essay, “The Unraveling of America,” first published in Rolling Stone, attracted five million readers and generated 362 million social media impressions. Media interest in the story was sustained over many weeks, with interview requests coming in from 23 countries.The anthropological lens, as Davis demonstrates, reveals what lies beneath the surface of things, allowing us to see, and to seek, the wisdom of the middle way, a perspective of promise and hope that all of the essays in this collection aspire to convey.“Wade Davis has a gift for saying the unsayable. He’s a fearless explorer in the intellectual world, as in the physical. His refusal to embrace conventional wisdom on climate change, for example, and instead think through the issue for himself, is a model of independent thinking. Even when I disagree with Wade, as with some of his bleak comments about the United States, I’m grateful for his voice. We usually live on the surface of ideas when we talk about issues such as war and racism; Wade takes us far deeper.”—David Ignatius, columnist and associate editor, Washington Post

In the rugged northern Rocky Mountains lies a spectacularly beautiful valley, known to the Native peoples as the Sacred Headwaters. There, on the edge of the Spatsizi Wilderness, the Serengeti of North America, three of the continent's most important salmon rivers—the Stikine, the Skeena, and the Nass—are born. Now, against the wishes of the Native inhabitants, the government of British Columbia has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development. Imperial Metals proposes an open-pit copper and gold mine, called the Red Chris mine, processing 30,000 tons of ore a day, and Royal Dutch Shell wants to extract coal bed methane gas from an anthracite deposit across an enormous tenure of close to a million acres.The splendor of the region is portrayed in this collection of photographs by the International League of Conservation Photographers, and by other professionals who have worked here, including Sarah Leen of the National Geographic. Wade Davis’ compelling text describes the region’s beauty, the threats to it, and the response of the inhabitants. The inescapable message is that no amount of methane gas can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that could be the Sacred Headwaters for all the peoples of the world.

Wade Davis reflexiona sobre nuestro tiempo, sobre los problemas del mundo hoy, pero también desde su pasión por la exploración y la historia de la búsqueda constante de la humanidad por comprender su contexto. Este libro recoge una serie de ensayos que engloban varias de las principales preocupaciones del autor Wade desde una reflexión sobre lo que dejó la pandemia del coronavirus hasta una historia de la coca y el dilema permanente de cómo afrontarla. Desde la India hasta el Everest; el autor repasa cómo y por qué la fascinación por explorar. Un libro ágil, ameno y lleno de sabiduría.

The Penan, one of the few remaining nomadic peoples of the rain forest, live in a place of indescribable beauty -- and all around them the forest is coming down at an alarming pace. In their East Malaysian state of Sarawak, the rate of timber cut is among the highest the world has ever known. This timely book addresses in words (both narrative and quotations) and unforgettable pictures the plight of the Penan. The majority of the photographs and quotations were collected during many field trips the authors made into the interior of Sarawak.Dramatic. -- The Los Angeles Times

It’s an alarming if little-known one of the world’s mightiest rivers, the Colorado, no longer reaches the sea. Every drop of its water is allocated to agriculture and communities along the way and none remains for the Colorado Delta at river’s end, a once-thriving estuary that supported North America’s most diverse biosphere. Grand A River at Risk draws attention the river’s plight as well as to the larger issue of the looming global water crisis. It follows Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading advocate for water conservation and river restoration, eminent ethnobotanist Wade Davis, and their two daughters on a rafting adventure down the Colorado. Their compelling journey illuminates both the challenges and the many opportunities that exist for conserving and restoring the world’s watersheds. Combining science and adventure with glorious imagery and locations, the book delivers a message of hope and inspiration for all people of the world.

With their towering spruces and cedars, verdant groundcover and cloaks of mist, the temperate rainforests of North America have long been a source of wonder and awe. Extending from northern California to southern Alaska, these immense and mysterious forests are home to a constellation of life that is unique on this planet. In this magnificent photographic collection, Graham Osborne's breathtaking images depict the many guises of the rainforest gnarled tree trunks dripping with moss, the spires of Douglas firs reaching into the sky, waterfalls tumbling over time-worn rocks, ice-encased fern fronds in winter, scarlet maple leaves littering the ground in autumn, a burst of wildflowers along a river bank in spring. Other photographs depict a tidepool rich with sea life, the Coast Mountains at sunset and sea stacks off the coast capped with old-growth trees. In his eloquent text, Wade Davis describes the scale and abundance of these rainforests, where redwoods reach nearly 120 metres and red cedars can be 6 metres or more across at the base. These and other giant conifers form the basis of one of the richest ecosystems in the world, where salmon and eagles proliferate, tiny seabirds lay their eggs in underground nests among the roots of ancient cedars, lungless salamanders in forest streams absorb oxygen through their skin, and creatures live on dew in the canopy of the forest and never touch the ground. Davis also discusses the role of the rainforest in Native culture and mourns the loss of much of this ancient forest through overcutting and other shortsighted forestry practices.

Book by Davis, Wade, Henley, Thom

Sur les 7 000 langues parlées aujourd'hui à travers la planète, au moins la moitié pourraient cesser d'exister d'ici la fin du XXIe siècle, emportant avec elles une certaine vision du monde : celle des peuples autochtones. Cette menace qui pèse sur la diversité humaine et culturelle, l'anthropologue canadien Wade Davis peut en attester. Après avoir sillonné le monde pendant plus de quarante ans, il nous met en garde contre le danger qu'une telle perspective représente. Si rien n'est fait, de nombreuses cultures, parmi les plus fragiles, sont vouées à disparaître et, avec elles, des connaissances, des modes de pensée, des arts et des spiritualités - en un mot toute la sagesse d'une mémoire ancienne. De la Polynésie aux Andes, du Mali au Groenland, du Tibet à l'Australie, ce un voyage est tout autant un plaidoyer en faveur des cultures anciennes qu'une invitation à repenser notre monde avant qu'il ne soit trop tard.

Explore the uncharted Amazon with acclaimed botanist and pioneering Amazonian explorer, Richard Evans Schultes, guided by an intimate narrative that supplements his photography of indigenous tribes, hallucinogenic plants, stunning vistas, and much more.

"El COVID-19 ha atacado nuestros cuerpos, pero también los fundamentos culturales de nuestra existencia, las herramientas de comunidad y conectividad que son para los humanos lo que las garras y los dientes son para el tigre. En tanto especie social, nuestra supervivencia biológica depende de las estructuras que erigimos, la matriz de reciprocidad económica, la compleja red de relaciones sociales, la intimidad y lealtad supuestas en los vínculos de sangre y afecto. El colapso de nuestro sistema económico, la situación desesperada de pacientes que agonizan lejos del consuelo y el cariño de sus seres queridos, obligados a sufrir y morir en soledad, no son efectos secundarios de la infección o meras consecuencias del contagio. Son más bien el resultado esperado de un virus oportunista que prospera mediante el contacto facilitado por el caos y el derrumbe de las instituciones".

Un resoconto scientifico di una spedizione interdisciplinare durata anni nel cuore dell'Amazzonia, sulle vette del Tibet, tra i ghiacci della Groenlandia, tra le remote tribù degli aborigeni d'Australia; un viaggio tra le più antiche e millenarie culture del pianeta, tra i loro bisogni e le loro esigenze, verificando le soluzioni che ognuna ha elaborato nella sua evoluzione storico-culturale, non dimenticando la comune base genetica del genere umano e tutto ciò che essa implica. Un team di etnologi, antropologi, linguisti, sociologi e psicologi a contatto diretto con queste culture "altre" ha così portato alla luce il comune cammino che il genere umano ha intrapreso, pur nella diversità, pur nella complessità che caratterizza le molteplici forme di adattamento culturale e genetico all'ambiente circostante. L'umanità deve proseguire in questo cammino (uno solo, condiviso, comune) comprendendo e salvaguardando le diversità come unica fonte di ricchezza.

The adventure begins when the little girl’s cat decides to follow her on the first day of school. Although the little girl carries the cat back home and tells him to stay, the cat won’t be denied and follows the little girl at a distance all the way to school. When the cat enters the little girl’s classroom, the teacher, students, and principal all sing what is allowed to be brought to school with number one school rule being “You Can’t Bring a Big Fat Cat to School.” Read whether the cat might be allowed to come back to school.

Cada cultura es una respuesta única a una pregunta ¿Qué significa ser humano y estar vivo? El antropólogo y explorador Wade Davis nos conduce por un apasionante viaje para celebrar la sabiduría de las culturas indígenas del mundo. Asimilar las lecciones de este viaje debe ser nuestra misión durante las próximas décadas. El legado de la humanidad es un vasto archivo de conocimientos y pericias, un catálogo de la imaginación que se encuentra en riesgo de desaparecer. Redescubrir una nueva valoración de la diversidad del espíritu humano, a partir de sus expresiones culturales, es uno de los grandes retos de nuestro tiempo.

The little girl tries out for the school softball team several times, but each year she isn't selected. This story follows her dream as she grows up. Will her perseverance and hard work pay off? It's her senior year. Will she ever make the team?

Every morning the little girl would wave good bye to her father as he sailed out on his fishing boat with the rest of the fleet and every evening she would wait on the dock for him to return. One day, however, he doesn't come back. This begins a journey by the little girl as she goes in search for him. Along the way she meets a friendly dolphin and an old turtle, who together help her. How will they find her father? Where could he be?What did the Big Blue Whale do?