Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures - Hardcover

Davis, Wade

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792264746 ISBN 13: 9780792264743

Publisher: National Geographic, 2002

Synopsis

The anthropologist-author of The Serpent and the Rainbow journeys around the world to explore the remarkable wealthy of human diversity and makes an impassioned argument for preserving our endangered traditional cultures in regions ranging from the Amazon to the Canadian Arctic to the mountains of Tibet. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Wade Davis is Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and is the author of numerous books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow, One River, and the 2009 Massey Lecture, The Wayfinders. He has lived and worked in the Stikine as a park ranger, guide, and anthropologist since 1978. He and his wife, Gail, own Wolf Creek Lodge, the closest private holding to both the Sacred Headwaters and the proposed site of the Red Chris mine.

From Publishers Weekly:

"As a young anthropologist I never understood how I was supposed to turn up at some village... announce that I was staying for a year, and then notify the headman that he and his people were to feed and house me while I studied their lives," writes Davis (Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire) in the introduction to this stunning collection of photographs that span the 25 years of his career. His solution was to find cultural common ground through the study of food and plants, which often was the ostensible reason for his travels through Canada, the Andes, the Amazon, Haiti, Kenya and Tibet. While Davis emphasizes that "at no time was photography [my] principal pursuit," his photographs are visually dazzling. A smiling Barasana boy of the Northwest Amazon holds a brilliantly colored macaw. A man in Haiti stands beneath the downpour of a torrential cataract, his clothes torn off by the force of the water. Indeed, these dramatic photographs frequently overshadow Davis's informative, witty essays, which introduce each of the seven chapters. In these, he shares anecdotes about the people he's met, reflects on the effects of colonialism in these areas and laments the uncertain fate of groups like the Penan of Borneo and the nomads of Kenya. Beautifully designed and produced, this album will delight armchair travelers.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0792264746
• ISBN 13: 9780792264743
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 180