At a time when the Colorado River and all those who depend on it are in peril, this urgent book offers "both a love song and a paean of regret to America's most spectacular river" (Denver Post) and "a plea to save [it] before it’s too late" (The Wall Street Journal). From bestselling author, long-time former National Geographic Explorer, and anthropologist Wade Davis comes 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." 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. Yet despite more than 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 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. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

What does it mean when a hit that knocks an American football player unconscious is cheered by spectators? What are the consequences of such violence for the participants of this sport and for the entertainment culture in which it exists? This book brings together scholars and sport commentators to examine the relationship between American football, violence and the larger relations of power within contemporary society. From high school and college to the NFL, Football, Culture, and Power analyses the social, political and cultural imprint of America's national pastime. The NFL's participation in and production of hegemonic masculinity, alongside its practices of racism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism, provokes us to think deeply about the historical and contemporary systems of violence we are invested in and entertained by. This social scientific analysis of American football considers both the positive and negative power of the game, generating discussion and calling for accountability. It is fascinating reading for all students and scholars of sports studies with an interest in American football and the wider social impact of sport.

Lyle Campbell's linguistic fieldwork has taken him to numerous countries, sometimes in challenging circumstances. It has led to exciting discoveries including a new language in southeastern Guatemala, a unique speech sound, unknown in any other language, in the Nivacle language of Paraguay and Argentina, and unusual and unique features in several other languages. Along the way, he has experienced dangers and challenges, the joys and excitement of fieldwork, and encountered first-hand the importance of collaborating with indigenous groups to help document and revitalize their languages. Written with humour, heart, and a clear dedication to endangered languages and their speakers, Lyle's vivid memoir is a lesson not only on life in the field but on the importance of language documentation. With so many of the world's languages being lost at an alarming rate, this remains the most compelling and urgent task for linguists now and into the future.

A defining scholarly publication on the past and current state of research with psychedelic plant substances for medicine, therapeutics, and spiritual uses. Certain plants have long been known to contain healing properties and used to treat everything from depression and addiction, to aiding in on one's own spiritual well-being for hundreds of years. Can Western medicine find new cures for human ailments by tapping into indigenous plant wisdom? And why the particular interest in the plants with psychoactive properties? These two conference volume proceedings provide an abundance of answers. The first international gathering of researchers held on this subject was in 1967, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and U.S. Public Health Service. It was an interdisciplinary group of specialists - from ethnobotanists to neuroscientists - gathered in one place to share their findings on a topic that was gaining widespread interest: The use of psychoactive plants in indigenous societies. The WAR ON DRUGS which intervened slowed advances in this field. Research, however, has continued, and in the fifty years since that first conference, new and significant discoveries have been made. A new generation of researchers, many inspired by the giants present at that first conference, has continued to investigate the outer limits of ethno-psychopharmacology. At the same time, there has been a sea change in public and medical perceptions of psychedelics. There is now a renaissance in research, and some of these agents are actively being investigated for their therapeutic potential. They are no longer as stigmatized as they have been in the past, although they remain controversial. There still remains much work to do in this field, and many significant discoveries remain to be made. So, in June of 2017, once again specialists from around the world in fields of ethnopharmacology, chemistry, botany, and anthropology gathered to discuss their research and findings in a setting that encouraged the free and frank exchange of information and ideas on the last 50 years of research, and assess the current and possible futures for research in ethnopsychopharmacology. The papers given at the 2017 Symposium, organized by Dr. Dennis McKenna, in a handsome two volume boxed collectors set represents perhaps the most significant body of knowledge in this interdisciplinary field available. About Dennis McKenna: He is an icon amongst psychedelic explorers, working to inspire the next generation of ethnobotanists in the search for new medicines for the benefit of humanity and the preservation of the biosphere that produces what is apparent from reading these papers - a rich pharmacopeia of medicines. Essential for academic libraries, pharmaceutical and ethnobotanical collections.

What does it mean when a hit that knocks an American football player unconscious is cheered by spectators? What are the consequences of such violence for the participants of this sport and for the entertainment culture in which it exists? This book brings together scholars and sport commentators to examine the relationship between American football, violence and the larger relations of power within contemporary society. From high school and college to the NFL, Football, Culture, and Power analyses the social, political and cultural imprint of America's national pastime. The NFL's participation in and production of hegemonic masculinity, alongside its practices of racism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism, provokes us to think deeply about the historical and contemporary systems of violence we are invested in and entertained by. This social scientific analysis of American football considers both the positive and negative power of the game, generating discussion and calling for accountability. It is fascinating reading for all students and scholars of sports studies with an interest in American football and the wider social impact of sport.

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.

A prominent Navajo educator once told historian Peter Iverson that 'the five major sports on the Navajo Nation are basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball, and rodeo.' The Native American passion for basketball extends far beyond the Navajo, whether on reservations or in cities, among the young and the old. Why basketball - a relatively new sport - should hold such a place in Native culture is the question Wade Davies takes up in Native Hoops. Indian basketball was born of hard times and hard places, its evolution traceable back to the boarding schools or 'Indian schools' of the early twentieth century. Davies describes the ways in which the sport, plied as a tool of social control and cultural integration, was adopted and transformed by Native students for their own purposes, ultimately becoming the 'Rez ball' that embodies Native American experience, identity, and community. Native Hoops travels the continent, from Alaska to North Carolina, tying the rise of basketball - and Native sports history - to sweeping educational, economic, social, and demographic trends through the course of the twentieth century. Along the way, the book highlights the toils and triumphs of well-known athletes, like Jim Thorpe and the 1904 Fort Shaw girl's team, even as it brings to light the remarkable accomplishments of those whom history has, until now, left behind. The first comprehensive history of American Indian basketball, Native Hoops tells a story of hope, achievement, and celebration - a story that reveals the redemptive power of sport and the transcendent spirit of Native culture.

Calling all people to become stewards of the earth, this exquisite edition is a heartfelt plea for the planet's preservation. The Declaration of Interdependence—both an enlightening creed and a passionate call to action—was composed by David Suzuki and a team of activists and environmentalists in 1992, in recognition of the United Nations' Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. This compelling statement of environmental principles progresses through three stages: “This We Know,” “This We Believe,” and “This We Resolve.” In this exquisitely designed edition, artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas brings this powerful creed to life using imagery from cultures around the world, interpreted through his dynamic Haida Manga style. The declaration is followed by an inspiring essay by David Suzuki. An epilogue by Tara Cullis, president and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, reveals the history and achievements of the foundation, one of North America's most active and successful environmental organizations. Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.

The definitive story of the British adventurers who survived the trenches of World War I and went on to risk their lives climbing Mount Everest.
On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Everest's North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain's finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a twenty-two-year-old Oxford scholar with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned.
Drawing on more than a decade of prodigious research, bestselling author and explorer Wade Davis vividly re-creates the heroic efforts of Mallory and his fellow climbers, setting their significant achievements in sweeping historical context: from Britain's nineteen-century imperial ambitions to the war that shaped Mallory's generation. Theirs was a country broken, and the Everest expeditions emerged as a powerful symbol of national redemption and hope. In Davis's rich exploration, he creates a timeless portrait of these remarkable men and their extraordinary times.

In 1924, two men set out from a camp perched on a Mt. Everest ice ledge. Col. George Mallory was Britain's finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a young Oxford scholar with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned. In this magisterial work of history and adventure, Davis vividly re-creates British climbers' epic attempts to scale Mount Everest.

Lyle Campbell's linguistic fieldwork has taken him to numerous countries, sometimes in challenging circumstances. It has led to exciting discoveries including a new language in southeastern Guatemala, a unique speech sound, unknown in any other language, in the Nivacle language of Paraguay and Argentina, and unusual and unique features in several other languages. Along the way, he has experienced dangers and challenges, the joys and excitement of fieldwork, and encountered first-hand the importance of collaborating with indigenous groups to help document and revitalize their languages. Written with humour, heart, and a clear dedication to endangered languages and their speakers, Lyle's vivid memoir is a lesson not only on life in the field but on the importance of language documentation. With so many of the world's languages being lost at an alarming rate, this remains the most compelling and urgent task for linguists now and into the future.

For 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."

The Missing of the Somme has become a classic meditation upon war and remembrance. It weaves a network of myth and memory, photos and films, poetry and sculptures, graveyards and ceremonies that illuminate our understanding of, and relationship to, the Great War.

Since the end of World War II, Navajo healing traditions have slowly been integrated into the Western medical institutions that serve the Dine. The history of Western medical care on Navajo reservations in the twentieth century, however, demonstrates that the incorporation of indigenous healing practices did not come without struggle. The advent of American mass culture, urbanization, and other forces made it difficult for young Dine to learn and preserve the old ways. At the same time, non-Native medical providers, missionaries, and U. S. government officials sometimes hindered the effort of the Dine to use traditional ceremonies and medical care. Focusing on the post-World War II period, Davies's detailed study begins where Robert Trennert's White Man's Medicine (1998), the only other general history of Western medicine among the Navajo, ends. Chronicling the advent of so-called "western" or "scientific" medicine in the modern era, including the development of indigenous healing traditions and such new institutions as the Native American Church, Davies shows the skill and adaptability of Dine in accepting the services of physicians while keeping the work of traditional healers among their health-care options. Davies also explores contemporaneous Navajo critiques of both "high-tech" and traditional health-care modes, detailing Navajo battles to integrate their healing practices into government and private health-care systems. The will of the Dine people to achieve self-determination in health care--and, indeed, to view health and healing in a broad and interactive context--has been so resolute that both tribal leadership and federal officials have been forced to acknowledge and contend with the Dine insistence on shaping Western medicine to fit their way of life. "The Dine," one of Davies' informants states, "are learning to function in two different worlds," and, in so doing, are intent on seeking the best of both.

American Indian Sovereignty and Law: An Annotated Bibliography covers a wide variety of topics and includes sources dealing with federal Indian policy, federal and tribal courts, criminal justice, tribal governance, religious freedoms, economic development, and numerous sub-topics related to tribal and individual rights. While primarily focused on the years 1900 to the present, many sources are included that focus on the 19th century or earlier. The annotations included in this reference will help researchers know enough about the arguments and contents of each source to determine its usefulness. Whenever a clear central argument is made in an article or book, it is stated in the entry, unless that argument is made implicit by the title of that entry. Each annotation also provides factual information about the primary topic under discussion. In some cases, annotations list topics that compose a significant portion of an author's discussion but are not obvious from the title of the entry. American Indian Sovereignty and Law will be extremely useful in both studying Native American topics and researching current legal and political actions affecting tribal sovereignty.

"The Mythic Modern" offers an significant antidote to the perception of the American abroad, chronicling a remarkable fifteen years of design-build expeditions in extraordinary locales all over the globe by an international team of architecture students focused on exploring, not exploiting, the local cultures, mythologies, and metaphors and leaving astonishing, affecting structures in their wake. Led by Travis Price, FAIA, who, since his early days in the Green movement has been sensitive to both the eco- and ethnospheres, these excursions find in their designs a balance of the tribal and the modern, the mythic and the practical, the place and its spirit. This lavishly illustrated book takes a critical look at the preservation of authenticity and character in a contemporary design language, along the way telling wild tales of the adventures of building these installations, with illuminating anecdotes and quotes, followed by the back-story of their conception, metaphors, planning, and design.

A captivating new book from Wade Davis - winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Into the Silence - that brings vividly to life the story of the great Rio Magdalena, illuminating Colombia's complex past, present, and future. For Wade Davis, Colombia was the first country that captured his heart and gave him license to be free. Here, he tells of his travels on the mighty Magdalena, the river that made possible the nation. Along the way, he finds a people who have overcome years of conflict precisely because of their character, informed by an enduring spirit of place, and a deep love of their remarkable land. Braiding together memoir, history and journalism, Magdalena is at once an absorbing adventure through a spectacular landscape and a kaleidoscopic picture of Colombia as it stands on the verge of a new period of peace. 'Outstanding... Davis tells epic tales of passion, violence and ambition with tremendous narrative verve' Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'A wonderful evocation of a lifetime's travel in Colombia' Spectator, Books of the Year

Wade Davis has been called "a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life's diversity." In "Shadows in the Sun," he brings all of those gifts to bear on a fascinating examination of indigenous cultures and the interactions between human societies and the natural world.

Ranging from the British Columbian wilderness to the jungles of the Amazon and the polar ice of the Arctic Circle, "Shadows in the Sun" is a testament to a world where spirits still stalk the land and seize the human heart. Its essays and stories, though distilled from travels in widely separated parts of the world, are fundamentally about landscape and character, the wisdom of lives drawn directly from the land, the hunger of those who seek to rediscover such understanding, and the consequences of failure.

As Davis explains, "To know that other, vastly different cultures exist is to remember that our world does not exist in some absolute sense but rather is just one model of reality. The Penan in the forests of Borneo, the Vodoun acolytes in Haiti, the jaguar Shaman of Venezuela, teach us that there are other options, other possibilities, other ways of thinking and interacting with the earth." "Shadows in the Sun" considers those possibilities, and explores their implications for our world.

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 rainforest 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 catalogue 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.

An extensive publication with numerous illustrations titled Healing: Life in Balance is being published to accompany and exhibition at the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt. The book presents all the participating international artists in personal conversations on the topic of healing and, based on the museum’s collection, expands the ethnological view to include interdisciplinary perspectives by international scholars and activists. The book opens up a polyphonic dialogue and offers possibilities for designing postcolonial, global coexistence and a healthy life in balance. Artists: Marina Abramović, La Vaughn Belle, Elena Bernabè, Roberta Carvalho, Magnus Døvigen, Alejandro Durán, Marco del Fiol, Ayrson Heráclito, Feliciano Lana, Naziha Mestaoui, Michael O’Neill, Roldán Pinedo.

In a rugged knot of mountains in the remote reaches of northern British Columbia lies a spectacularly beautiful valley known to the First Nations as the Sacred Headwaters. There, on the southern edge of the Spatsizi Wilderness, the Serengeti of North America, are born in remarkably close proximity three of the continent's most important salmon rivers--the Stikine, the Skeena, and the Nass. Now, against the wishes of all First Nations, the government of British Columbia has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development. In particular, 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 Sacred Headwaters is both a celebration of one of the most extraordinary regions in North America and a call to arms to preserve it for future generations. A remarkable collection of photographs taken by members of the International League of Conservation Photographers stunningly portray the beauty and diversity of the ecologically diverse region. The eloquent and compelling text by Wade Davis, which describes the unparalleled beauty and grandeur of the region, the threats to it from industrial development, and the response of native groups and other inhabitants of the area, is complemented by the voices of the Tahltan elders. The inescapable message is that no amount of methane gas can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that could be the Sacred Headwaters of all North Americans and indeed of all peoples of the world.

From the author of INTO THE SILENCE, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction In 1941, Richard Evans Schultes took a leave of absence from Harvard University and disappeared into the Northern Amazon of Colombia. The world's leading authority on the hallucinogens and medicinal plants of the region, he returned after twelve years of travelling through South America in a dug-out canoe, mapping uncharted rivers, living among local tribes and documenting the knowledge of shamans. Thirty years later, his student Wade Davis landed in Bogota to follow in his mentor's footsteps - so creating an epic tale of undaunted adventure, a compelling work of natural history and a testament to the spirit of scientific exploration.