Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire | 
|  | | | Title: | Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire | | Author: | Wade Davis | | Publisher: | Broadway | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 12 October, 1999 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0767904028 / 9780767904025 | | List Price: | $14.00 | | Amazon Price: | $19.98 (via Amazon marketplace seller) | | | |
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Product Description
"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.
Amazon.com Review
Renowned anthropologist Wade Davis shows us how preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is just as important as preserving our endangered plants, insects, and animals. In this collection of personal essays, Davis tells of dramatic personal adventures during which he visits and often lives with indigenous communities in the remote regions of the world. He offers reports of toad-smoking shamanistic journeys in the Amazon forests, tracking an elusive cloud leopard in the mountains of Tibet, and a soulful lament for the lost American buffalo. Although he has been called a modern-day Indiana Jones, Davis has far more integrity. His stories are not in service to self-glorification, but rather to one resounding theme: If there is one lesson I have drawn from my travels, it is that cultural and biological diversity are far more than the foundation of stability; they are an article of faith, a fundamental truth that indicates the way things are supposed to be.... There is a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills, and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame and reinventing the poetry of diversity is the most important challenge of our times. --Gail Hudson
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Customer Reviews:
• Book For School 20 October, 2008
I bought the book for my Anthropolohy class. The book is not bad. It's a bunch of essays put together in this book. Some of them are interesting, others a little long.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AOORZJULUAI7C
• A Little Bit Of Everywhere 26 April, 2004
How tough are we, really? When I was twelve I can assure you that I was not killing polar bears and whales; but Wade Davis introduces the reader to just such an Inuit boy. The boy is special in that he carries on a tradition of providing his community with sustenance; but he is one of many such boys and men in his community. Shadows in the Sun is filled with cultural activities that seem bizzare, terrifying, beautifully exotic, outrageous, and downright strange to those of us whose culture is surrounded by electronics, mass media, and mass prefabrication. It is a beautifully written book that samples human diversity as a threatened and disappearing art form.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2BB4SUDG1QGFL
• Profound And Brilliant 19 April, 2004
_Shadows in the Sun_ is a collection of essays on biodiversity, from both an anthropological perspective as well as from a biological standpoint. The brilliance of the book is the way in which Daivs illustrates the juxtaposition and similarity between the two.Davis takes you from the rainforests of Indonesia to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, voudon practices in Haiti, toad licking in the Amercan southwest, "surviving" in the Canadian arctic. In each essay, the tremendous variety of life (animal - including human - plant and fungal) and its adaptation to its environment is discussed in detail. I give it four stars rather than five due to the underlying lament of the loss of bio (and cultural) diversity that is taking place worldwide. Certainly this is a just concern, and Davis is not the first to draw attention to this. However by only discussing the damage the modern, industrialized world is causing without addressing ways of elimintating the harm being done makes such observations a moot point. Even with this criticism, however, I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful read.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2NHD7LUXVGTD3
• Recycled A Bit, But Good 19 January, 2007
At first I thought I had read this book already, and while it's technically possible, I think I am getting that sensation because Wade Davis recycles his stories and essays over and over again. By now I think I've read everything he's written (or getting very close, at any rate) and I love it all. He has great stories. But like a drunk uncle at a Christmas party, they are changing as he gets older and they are also getting a little tired. By my count, I've heard about the running of the borders in the Andes about 6 times now, and it's fascinating, it's a really great tradition and Davis tells it well, but honestly, I expect more from a man who's travelled around the world, lived with the Penan and in the Amazon and in Haiti and in the Stikine...he's got to have more stories than that. So in that respect I found this book frustrating because I kept skipping ahead for something that didn't sound like something I'd already heard. And that's a shame because his stories are enticing and he writing style is engaging, I'm just hungry for more new material.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2DB7CC5IN4S0P
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