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The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

Wade Davis

Many of us are alarmed by the accelerating rates of extinction of plants and animals. 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 coal mine: what of the knowledge, stories, songs, and ways of seeing encoded in these 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 vanish.

GenresCultural pluralismAcculturationEndangered languagesIndigenous peoplesLanguages

262 pages, 11 editions

English edition · First published 2009 by House of Anansi Press · ISBN 9780887847660

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Editions

11 editions

English

  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · House of Anansi Press · 2009 · ISBN 9780887847660 This page
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · Tantor and Blackstone Publishing · 2021 · ISBN 9781665261289
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · Tantor and Blackstone Publishing · 2021 · ISBN 9781665261272
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · Tantor Media Inc · 2017 · ISBN 9781541456914
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · Tantor Media Inc · 2017 · ISBN 9781541406919
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · House of Anansi Press · 2009 · ISBN 9780887848421
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Ancient World (Cbc Massey Lectures 2009) · Cbc Radio Canada · 2009 · ISBN 9780660199184
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · House of Anansi Press · 2009 · ISBN 9781770897977
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · House of Anansi Press · 2009 · ISBN 9781283261821
  • The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World · House of Anansi Press · 2009 · ISBN 9786613261823
  • The Wayfinders : Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World / Wade Davis · ACP - House of Anansi Press · 2009 · ISBN 9780887849695

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