EXPLORATIONS - Wade Davis: Scientist, Explorer and Writer

EXPLORATIONS - Wade¹ Davis: Scientist, Explorer and Writer
By Marilyn Christiano

Broadcast: Wednesday, May 04, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

This is Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

 
Wade Davis
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about scientist, explorer and writer Wade Davis. He is working to try to save cultures throughout the world that are in danger of disappearing.

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VOICE ONE:

Wade Davis has been exploring the mostly unknown areas of the world for more than twenty-five years. He has traveled from the mountains of Tibet to the deserts of North Africa … from the Canadian Arctic² to the rain forests of Borneo.

"Light at the Edge of the World" is his latest book. It is published by the

Light at the Edge of the World

National Geographic³ Society, where he is an Explorer-in-Residence. The book includes pictures Mister⁴ Davis has taken of these hidden places of the world, places which face many threats. The pictures are beautiful and unusual. Some of the images remain in your memory long after you close the book.

One picture shows a guard leaning out a window in a bright orange wall of a Buddhist⁵ religious center in Tibet. In another, the yellow light of the sun is just beginning to appear over the morning fog in the forests of the Waorani people in Ecuador. Another picture shows a caribou⁶ walking along a huge expanse of white snow in British Columbia, Canada. In another, an Ariaal woman of Karare in Kenya, wearing many bright red necklaces, carries a large load of firewood on her back.

VOICE TWO:

Other pictures show evidence of a disappearing way of life. For example, one picture is of fallen trees by a river that flows through the forests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. A large yellow machine rests on the cleared land. A young woman tries to wash in the now polluted river. It is evidence of what is happening to the home of the Penan people in Borneo. They lived by hunting and gathering⁷ food as they moved through the forests.

However, Mister Davis says the Malaysian government is permitting companies to cut the trees on more than seventy percent of the Penan territory. As a result, the traditional way of life of the Penan is gone. And all their history, which is part of the forest, is lost.

VOICE ONE:

 
Light at the Edge of the World
In "Light at the Edge of the World," Wade Davis writes about what native groups could teach about different ways of living and thinking. He describes their daily lives, and the threats to their traditional ways. He explains their strong relationship to the land they live on, and the ceremonies that tie them to each other and to nature. For these groups, the land is alive. Mountains, rivers and forests are not just thought of as supports for human life.

Wade Davis's hope is that through this book and other projects he can help people understand the value of what he calls the ethnosphere. He created the word ethnosphere, he says, because words have power. The word describes the total of all thoughts, beliefs and stories of the different cultures alive in the world today. He wants to get people to see that there is a link of cultural, spiritual, intellectual⁸ and social life that goes around the planet⁹. He says, "The ethnosphere represents all we are and all we have created as humans."

VOICE TWO:

Mister Davis says the ethnosphere is being damaged more rapidly and severely¹⁰ than the biosphere¹¹ – the plants, animals and insects of the world. The sign of this, he says, is in the loss of languages. He explains it this way. Throughout all of human history, about ten-thousand languages have existed. Today, about six-thousand are still spoken. Yet half of these are not being taught to children, which means they will be lost as soon as the older speakers die.

Each language contains the history of a culture. It represents the intellectual and spiritual knowledge that comes from ancestors down through the years. Languages express the belief systems, traditions and ways of understanding the world that are different for each group of people. Wade Davis says that each way of looking at the world helps us all understand the complex human experience.

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VOICE ONE:

Wade Davis was born in British Columbia, in northwest Canada. He has degrees in anthropology¹² -- the study of humans, and botany -- the study of plants. He received his doctorate¹³ in ethnobotany from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ethnobotony is the study of how plants are used in a culture.

One of the most important influences on his life was a professor at Harvard, Richard Schultes. He was known as the world's leading expert on plants that are used as medicines and plants that affect the mind.

Professor Schultes had left Harvard in the early Nineteen Forties to spend six months in South America along the Amazon River. He ended up spending twelve years there making maps of rivers. He lived with more than twenty native groups. In that time, he collected more than twenty-seven-thousand examples of plant life, including two-thousand medicinal plants.

VOICE TWO:

Wade Davis was a student at Harvard when he met Professor Schultes in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. He told the professor that he too would like to go collect plants in the Amazon. Two weeks later Wade was on his way.

He spent fifteen months there during that first trip exploring the Amazon River and Andes Mountains of South America. Through the years, he lived with fifteen native groups in eight Latin¹⁴ American countries and collected six-thousand plants.

After his first trip to the Amazon area, he went to Haiti to investigate plant mixtures thought to create a zombie, a live person who appears to be dead. He wrote about the experience in the book, "The Serpent and the Rainbow," an international bestseller published in Nineteen-Eighty-Six.

VOICE ONE:

Wade Davis has spent years traveling in South America along the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River. His book, "One River, Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest," tells about his experiences there.

He explored many other places, including Tibet, the Arctic and Malaysia. He has experienced¹⁵ daily life that is very different from modern western life. He tells the story of how this way of life is disappearing as forests are cut, rivers are polluted, and native homelands are seized.

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VOICE TWO:

Wade Davis says his worldwide travels have been driven by a simple desire for knowledge, for understanding how other people live. But, he says, what also was pushing him into his explorations was the need for excitement.

One of the pleasures of travel, he says, is the chance to live among those who have not lost the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind. He says he does not learn a lot about the nature of being alive from people who live in modern western ways. The joy of learning¹⁶ about what it means to be human comes from those who live in other ways.

Mister Davis says he goes up into the Andes Mountains and spends a month in a village where an older member of the group tells the future by throwing coca leaves. "I see his people use traditional ceremonies to re-establish their sense of belonging to the Earth. It is here I see a window open wide to a place beyond my imaginings."

VOICE ONE:

In his books and in public speeches, Wade Davis mourns the way ancient peoples throughout the world are being torn from their past and pushed into the future. "Change is not the problem," he says. "All through history, cultures have changed to meet the pressures of more modern times. We are not talking about how we stop history, or change. The real question is how do we direct the flow of change so it does not do harm to living cultures."

He says traditional cultures should be permitted to change at their own speed and in their own ways. It is very possible, he says, to use both blowguns and computers. It should not be a choice of either one or the other.

For example, offering modern medicine to native groups should not mean the death of shamanism, the ancient method of healing¹⁷. The two traditions can support each other.

VOICE TWO:

Wade Davis points out that the physical destruction¹⁸ of groups of people is condemned¹⁹ worldwide. But the destruction of ethnic²⁰ traditions is considered in many places to be good policy. He thinks that governments and individuals can be educated to realize this is wrong.

Wade Davis says that every culture that disappears reduces human knowledge about the natural world, ways to react to common problems, and even the meaning of existence. In his book, "Light at the Edge of the World," and through National Geographic Society programs, he tells the stories of the many cultures of the world. He hopes to use his explorations and storytelling about what he finds to try to awaken²¹ everyone to the wonder of the ethnosphere.

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VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver²². This is Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.

1 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

2 Arctic   

adj.北极的；n.北极

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• The sort of animal lived in the Arctic Circle.这种动物生活在北极圈里。

3 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

4 mister   

n.(略作Mr.全称很少用于书面)先生

参考例句：

• Mister Smith is my good friend.史密斯先生是我的好朋友。
• He styled himself " Mister Clean ".他自称是“清廉先生”。

5 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

6 caribou   

n.北美驯鹿

参考例句：

• Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
• The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球，他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。

7 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

8 intellectual   

n.知识分子；adj.智力的，理智的，有理解力的

参考例句：

• Thinking is an intellectual process.思维是一个智力活动过程。
• Chess is a highly intellectual game.象棋是需用高度智力的运动项目。

9 planet   

n.行星

参考例句：

• Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun. 海王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet. 然而, 垃圾只是我们这个星球的污染问题的一个方面。

10 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

11 biosphere   

n.生命层，生物圈

参考例句：

• The entire biosphere was becoming more transparent.整个生物圈越来越透明。
• The impact of modern technology on the biosphere is evident worldwide.现代技术对生物圈的影响在全世界是明显的。

12 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

13 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

14 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

15 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

16 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

17 healing   

n.康复，复原adj.有治疗功用的v.（使）愈合( heal的现在分词 )；治愈；（使）结束；较容易忍受

参考例句：

• miraculous powers of healing 神奇的治病能力
• She seems to have a vocation for healing. 看来她具备治病救人的才能。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 destruction   

n.破坏，毁灭，消灭

参考例句：

• The enemy bombs caused widespread destruction.敌人的炸弹造成大面积的破坏。
• Overconfidence was his destruction.自负是他垮台的原因。

19 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

20 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

21 awaken   

vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起

参考例句：

• Old people awaken early in the morning.老年人早晨醒得早。
• Please awaken me at six.请于六点叫醒我。

22 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。