The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

Do you believe the ethnosphere is as integral to the continued habitation of this planet as the biosphere? Explain with references from the text.

Tibetan Buddhist Matthieu Ricard defines Buddhism as a “science of the mind” (183). What does he mean by this statement? Do other cultures in the text have similar “sciences” of belief?

In the final lecture Davis states that “a single adaptive challenge, surviving drought, reverberates through the entire [Rendille] culture, defining for these nomadic tribes what it means to be human” (189). Choose one of the cultural histories you or your family live in or are a part of, ancient or modern. Is there an adaptation that you can think of that has the same import? What is it? How does it “reverberate” in other aspects of the culture?

Wayfinding is the tradition of Polynesian sea navigation, but Davis applies the term to all the ancient cultures covered in the text. Define this broader sense of wayfinding, and identify it in two cultures featured in the text.

What is the purpose of culture? Is your reading different from Davis’s reading? Explain with references from the text.

Davis repeatedly refers to a “Victorian cult of improvement” (11) and a Western “cult of progress” (188). What does Davis mean by these terms? How do they differ from religious perspectives on the nature of human endeavor? Explain with references from the text.

How has The Wayfinders changed your perspective on the function of (a) religion or (b) anthropology? Explain with references from the text.

Davis praises the Canadian government for seeking “appropriate means of restitution” (204) for the Inuit of Nunavut. Based on the histories presented in the text, do you think restitution for indigenous people is necessary? If not, why not? If so, what should this restitution look like? Is this the only way industrial and indigenous nations can move forward together?