Disappearing Languages ~ Origins of Species
Richard Evans Schultes; Ethnobotanist to the Stars
The legacy of Ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) is enormous. Roaming the Amazon with the natives he was able to document more than 2,000 medicinal plants, giving his name to 120 species, here he is interviewed, the man was very down to earth, take special note of his opinion about the influence of Western missionaries. He is most famous for his discovery of psychoactive mushrooms and Yage (or telepathine). Burroughs met him at Harvard, and in 1953 he joins a Schultes expedition, in search for Yage.
[Schultes] met both Burroughs and Timothy Leary. He afforded neither much respect. Schultes chided the latter for misspelling the Latin names of plants, and when Burroughs describes a psychedelic trip as an earth-shattering experience, his response was: "that’s funny, Bill, all I saw were colors." Source
Burroughs said, "Know him [shultes] well. We took a trip to South America together. He has a definite disagreement with the attempt to eradicate cocaine there. He says that it doesn't hurt them at all. That's what Dick Schultes says. I think it must cut off the circulation in the gums. That's what does it. Teeth fall out. It's a disgusting habit, I think. Just physically. I tried it. All it did is freeze up my mouth. No systemic effect. It seems like a waste of time to me." Source
Burroughs about Yage:
"Yagé is space time travel," he wrote from Peru, after many misadventures and traumatic trips. "The room seems to shake and vibrate with motion. The blood and substance of many races, Negro, Polynesian, Mountain Mongol, Desert Nomad, Polyglot Near East, Indian-new races as yet unconceived and unborn, combinations not yet realized passes through your body."
Remnants of the Planet ~ Life on Earth with Wade Davis
In this stunning talk, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures, many of which are disappearing, as ancestral land is lost and languages die. (50 percent of the world's 6000 languages are no longer taught to children.) Against a backdrop of extraordinary photos and stories that ignite the imagination, Davis argues that we should be concerned not only for preserving the biosphere, but also the "ethnosphere," which he describes as "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." An anthropologist and botanist by training, Davis has traveled the world, living among indigenous cultures. He's written several books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow and Light at the Edge of the World. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 22:44)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html
Wade Davis ~ Poetry of Death of the Disappearing Ethnicity
"Whether it’s the agrievous deforestation in the homeland of the Pinan; a nomadic people from southeast asia from Serouac, of people who lived free in the forest, until a generation ago and now have all been reduced to servitude and prostitution on the banks of the rivers where you can see the river itself is soiled with the silt that seems to be carrying half of borneo away to the south china sea where the japanese freighters hang light on the horizon ready to fill their holds with raw logs ripped from the forest...or in the case of the adamame, it’s the disease entities that have come in the wake of the discovery of gold..."
Light at the End of the World ~ Wade Davis & The Wayfinders of Polynesia
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/v/t4suY4EmVrM
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/v/DwJISP526yo
part 3
http://www.youtube.com/v/b4eR0b9-v7s
part 4
http://www.youtube.com/v/dQDsstRlI70
part 5
http://www.youtube.com/v/HhLBm1zHHSI
Whispers in time... The Wayfinders of Polynesia inhabited the largest culturesphere in human history, spanning one fifth of the surface of the planet. Navigators of the sea, Wayfinders used wave pattern 'fingerprints' and the stars to travel to thousands of islands. However, this culture that once flourished over 25 million square kilometres of ocean, has seen much of its history and tradition die out. To preserve Wayfinding, one Hawaiian native learns this art form of navigation and designs a traditional Polynesian boat to sail across the islands. Wade Davis accompanies him on one of these journeys to learn and listen as he shares his emotional story of overcoming stereotypes and disillusionment to embrace the culture of his ancestors. Complemented with commentary from a Polynesian scholar, The Wayfinders offers an in-depth look into the life of this ancient culture.
.
The legacy of Ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) is enormous. Roaming the Amazon with the natives he was able to document more than 2,000 medicinal plants, giving his name to 120 species, here he is interviewed, the man was very down to earth, take special note of his opinion about the influence of Western missionaries. He is most famous for his discovery of psychoactive mushrooms and Yage (or telepathine). Burroughs met him at Harvard, and in 1953 he joins a Schultes expedition, in search for Yage.
[Schultes] met both Burroughs and Timothy Leary. He afforded neither much respect. Schultes chided the latter for misspelling the Latin names of plants, and when Burroughs describes a psychedelic trip as an earth-shattering experience, his response was: "that’s funny, Bill, all I saw were colors." Source
Burroughs said, "Know him [shultes] well. We took a trip to South America together. He has a definite disagreement with the attempt to eradicate cocaine there. He says that it doesn't hurt them at all. That's what Dick Schultes says. I think it must cut off the circulation in the gums. That's what does it. Teeth fall out. It's a disgusting habit, I think. Just physically. I tried it. All it did is freeze up my mouth. No systemic effect. It seems like a waste of time to me." Source
Burroughs about Yage:
"Yagé is space time travel," he wrote from Peru, after many misadventures and traumatic trips. "The room seems to shake and vibrate with motion. The blood and substance of many races, Negro, Polynesian, Mountain Mongol, Desert Nomad, Polyglot Near East, Indian-new races as yet unconceived and unborn, combinations not yet realized passes through your body."
Remnants of the Planet ~ Life on Earth with Wade Davis
Click to viewIn this stunning talk, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures, many of which are disappearing, as ancestral land is lost and languages die. (50 percent of the world's 6000 languages are no longer taught to children.) Against a backdrop of extraordinary photos and stories that ignite the imagination, Davis argues that we should be concerned not only for preserving the biosphere, but also the "ethnosphere," which he describes as "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." An anthropologist and botanist by training, Davis has traveled the world, living among indigenous cultures. He's written several books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow and Light at the Edge of the World. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 22:44)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html
Wade Davis ~ Poetry of Death of the Disappearing Ethnicity
"Whether it’s the agrievous deforestation in the homeland of the Pinan; a nomadic people from southeast asia from Serouac, of people who lived free in the forest, until a generation ago and now have all been reduced to servitude and prostitution on the banks of the rivers where you can see the river itself is soiled with the silt that seems to be carrying half of borneo away to the south china sea where the japanese freighters hang light on the horizon ready to fill their holds with raw logs ripped from the forest...or in the case of the adamame, it’s the disease entities that have come in the wake of the discovery of gold..."
Light at the End of the World ~ Wade Davis & The Wayfinders of Polynesia
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/v/t4suY4EmVrM
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/v/DwJISP526yo
part 3
http://www.youtube.com/v/b4eR0b9-v7s
part 4
http://www.youtube.com/v/dQDsstRlI70
part 5
http://www.youtube.com/v/HhLBm1zHHSI
Whispers in time... The Wayfinders of Polynesia inhabited the largest culturesphere in human history, spanning one fifth of the surface of the planet. Navigators of the sea, Wayfinders used wave pattern 'fingerprints' and the stars to travel to thousands of islands. However, this culture that once flourished over 25 million square kilometres of ocean, has seen much of its history and tradition die out. To preserve Wayfinding, one Hawaiian native learns this art form of navigation and designs a traditional Polynesian boat to sail across the islands. Wade Davis accompanies him on one of these journeys to learn and listen as he shares his emotional story of overcoming stereotypes and disillusionment to embrace the culture of his ancestors. Complemented with commentary from a Polynesian scholar, The Wayfinders offers an in-depth look into the life of this ancient culture.
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