CBC Radio | Ideas | The 2009 Massey Lectures: The Wayfinders by Wade Davis

The CBC Massey Lectures 2009

Lecture 3 - Peoples of the Anaconda

There is no beginning and end in Barasana thought, no sense of a linear progression of time, destiny, or fate. Theirs is a fractal world in which no event has a life of its own, and any number of ideas can coexist in parallel levels of perception and meaning. Scale succumbs to intention. Every object must be understood, as Stephen told me, at various levels of analysis. A rapid is an impediment to travel but also a house of the ancestors, with both a front and a back door. A stool is not a symbol of a mountain; it is in every sense an actual mountain, upon the summit of which sits the shaman. A row of stools is the ancestral anaconda, and the patterns painted onto the wood of the stools depict both the journey of the ancestors and the striations that decorate the serpent’s skin. A corona of oropendola feathers really is the sun, each yellow plume a ray. The infinite elements of the Barasana world spin like a carousel in the mind, and there is no one obvious point of departure for even a modest attempt to explain the profundity of the peoples’ intuitions about the meaning of being alive - save perhaps the maloca, the longhouse, which is both a physical space in which the people live and a cosmic model of the entire universe.

If civilizations are measured, however crudely, by the scale of their monumental architecture - just as we measure the stonework of the Inca, the temples of the Maya - then the maloca is proof of the stunning achievements of the ancient peoples of the Amazon. These structures are enormous, their internal dimensions all-encompassing. Forty metres in length, perhaps 20 abreast, with vaulted ceilings rising to 10 metres above a dirt floor hardened by ten thousand thunderous dance steps as well as the quiet passage of children at dawn, the maloca is the womb of the kindred, the dark and cool shelter of the clan, the communal space in which occurs, and out of which emerges, every societal gesture of the spirit.

- Wade Davis

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Notes From The Road by Paul Kennedy

Halifax, October 21, 2009

When you find yourself in the middle of the Massey Lecture tour with an “Explorer-in-Residence” from the National Geographic Society, certain basic differences between Wade Davis and the rest of us travelers become apparent.

First off, it’s obvious that the man knows how to get around. He arrived in Yellowknife, fresh from the Middle East, but via Peru - carrying luggage that fits with frightening ease into the overhead luggage rack of a small aircraft. Between our last stop in Vancouver and this lecture in Halifax, Wade squeezed in a speaking engagement in Victoria and a weekend visit with his family back in Washington, D. C. Having a job description that regularly takes him around the world has taught Wade Davis how to roll with the punches.

The Halifax lecture - which marks the halfway point in our travels -is co-sponsored by the University of King’s College. Ever since our first cross-country tour with Margaret Visser back in 2002, the college has hosted a reception where students get a chance to rub shoulders with the lecturer. Everybody gets a sneak preview of themes and topics that will be covered in the formal lecture later that night.

Wade worked the room with the energy of a politician on the campaign trail. More than once on this lecture tour, he has suggested that his natural audience ranges between the ages of 18 and 30. He’s saying things they understand, things that are true to the world as they see it. Halifax proved the point.

After the lecture, Wade was still talking about the reception. “The students at that party were amazing! They’re intelligent, and engaged, and connected. They ask all the right questions, and they can tell when an answer is dishonest. They travel all over the world - to places we never would have dreamed of going when we were kids - but they insist on being plugged-in all the time. I can’t help but be an optimist about the future.” Certainly, to Wade Davis there’s a younger generation that understands ‘why ancient wisdom matters in the modern world’.

Books and CDs

The Wayfinders is published by House of Anansi Press .

The book and CD set can be ordered securely online at The CBC Shop or, to speak to a live operator, by calling 1-800-955-7711, Monday through Friday, 9:00 am - 4:45 pm EST. The book costs CAD $19.95. The broadcast lectures of The Wayfinders are available as a set of 5 CDs at a cost of CAD $49.95.

If you encounter difficulties or if you wish to pay by personal cheque, the direct line to IDEAS Transcripts is 416-205-6010 or, by email, ideastran AT cbc.ca (change the letters AT to the @ symbol and remove the spaces when sending to this address).

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