Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

[Rooftop Garden volunteer Tim shares Aboriginal planting traditions, spring 2009.].

The Wayfinders.

Recently, many of us have been alarmed to learn of accelerating rates of extinction among plants and animals on our planet. But how many of us know that human cultures are going extinct at an even more shocking rate? While biologists estimate that 18 percent of mammals and 11 percent of birds are threatened, and botanists anticipate the loss of 8 percent of flora, anthropologists predict that fully 50 percent of the 7,000 languages spoken around the world today will disappear within our lifetimes. And languages are merely the canaries in the coalmine: what of the knowledge, stories, songs, and ways of seeing encoded in these disappearing voices?

In The Wayfinders, Wade Davis offers a gripping and enlightening account of this urgent crisis. He leads us on a fascinating tour through a handful of indigenous cultures, describing the worldviews they represent and reminding us of the encroaching danger to humankind’s survival should they disappear.

Wade Davis is a noted Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author, and photographer whose work focuses on indigenous cultures worldwide, particularly involving traditional uses and beliefs associated with plants.

For more information, please visit the CBC's Massey Lectures website.