Wade Davis (anthropologist) explained

Wade Davis
Birth Name:Edmund Wade Davis
Birth Date:14 December 1953
Birth Place:West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Spouse:Gail Percy
Children:2
Education:Harvard University (Ph.D.)
Workplaces:University of British Columbia
Notable Works:The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985)

Edmund Wade Davis (born December 14, 1953) is a Canadian cultural anthropologist, ethnobotanist, photographer, and writer.

Davis came to prominence with his 1985 best-selling book The Serpent and the Rainbow about the zombies of Haiti. He is professor of anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia.

Early life, family, and education

Davis was born in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[1]

He holds degrees in anthropology and biology and earned his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University.

In 1974, at age 20, Davis crossed the Darién Gap on foot in the company of the English author and amateur explorer Sebastian Snow.

Career

Beyond his scientific career, Davis is also an active writer, photographer, and filmmaker. He is a licensed river guide and has worked as a park ranger and forestry engineer.

Anthropology and ethnobotany

Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among fifteen indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations, while making some 6,000 botanical collections. He conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), a bestseller. The book was used loosely as the basis of a Wes Craven horror film, The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988).

Other books by Davis include Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), One River (1996), which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction, Shadows in the Sun (1998),The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), Book of Peoples of the World (ed. 2008). His books have been translated into 14 languages

He has published 1800 articles on subjects from Haitian Vodo, Amazonian myth and religion, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, the ethnobotany of South American Indians, as well as, how COVID-19 has signaled the end of the American era.[2] Davis has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Premiere, Outside, Omni, Harpers, Fortune, Men's Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Natural History, Scientific American, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, Rolling Stone, and numerous other international publications.

Davis is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Davis served as Explorer-in-Residence with the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013.[3]

Davis' 2012 book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest won the Baillie Gifford Prize (formerly the Samuel Johnson prize) for non-fiction. His account weaves together the three Everest expeditions in 1922, 1923 and 1924, set in the shadow of the Great War, by finding "a unifying thread in the person of George Mallory, the scatter-brained Adonis and Bloomsbury favourite whose fate would enthral the nation," wrote John Keay in Literary Review.[4]

Photography

His photographs have appeared in some 20 books and more than 80 magazines, journals, and newspapers, including National Geographic, Time, GEO, People, Men's Journal, Outside, and National Geographic Adventure. They have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography (ICP), the Marsha Ralls Gallery (Washington, D.C.), the United Nations (Cultures on the Edge exhibition 2004), the Carpenter Center of Harvard University, and the Utama Center (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Some of his images are part of the permanent collection of the U.S. State Department, Africa and Latin America Bureaus. Davis is the co-curator of The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes, first exhibited at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and currently touring Latin America. A first collection of Davis's photographs, Light at the Edge of the World, appeared in 2001 published by National Geographic Books, Bloomsbury, and Douglas & McIntyre. A second collection was under contract for 2013 publication with Douglas & McIntyre as well.

Filmmaking and other media involvement

Davis was the series creator, host, and co-writer of Light at the Edge of the World, a four-hour ethnographic documentary series, shot in Rapa Nui, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Nunavut, Greenland, Nepal, and Peru, which aired in 165 countries on the National Geographic Channel and in the USA on Smithsonian Networks.

He is featured in the MacGillivray Freeman IMAX film , released in the spring of 2008. Other television credits include the award-winning documentaries Spirit of the Mask, Cry of the Forgotten People, Forests Forever, and Earthguide, a 13-part television series on the environment that aired on the Discovery Channel in 1990. His four-hour series with National Geographic, Ancient Voices / Modern World, was shot in Australia, Mongolia, and Colombia. It has been broadcast worldwide on the National Geographic Channel as part of the second season of Light at the Edge of the World.

In 2022 Davis curated an exhibition at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California that highlighted the history of expeditions to the peak of Mount Everest. The exhibition "Ascent to Glory," included photographs, films and artifacts from five expeditions from the period 1921 to 1953. The Bowers Museum presented the exhibition in partnership with London's Royal Geographical Society.[5]

Advisory work

An honorary research associate of the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, he is a Fellow of the Linnean Society, a Fellow of the Explorer's Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Davis was a founding board member of the David Suzuki Foundation and completed a six-year term on the board of the Banff Centre, a Canadian institution for the arts. He has served on the board of directors since 2009 for the Amazon Conservation Association, whose mission is to conserve the biological diversity of the Amazon.[6] In 2009, he delivered the CBC Massey Lectures, Canada's most prestigious public intellectual forum.

He is a member of the International Advisory Board, Hunt Consolidated, PLNG, and has also been engaged in Journey to Zero, a three-year campaign sponsored by Nissan and TBWA to support zero emission vehicles.[7]

Criticisms of work in Haiti

In 1983, Davis first advanced his hypothesis that tetrodotoxin (TTX) poisoning could explain the existence of Haitian zombies.[8] This idea has been controversial and his 1985 follow-up book (The Serpent and the Rainbow) elaborating upon this claim has been criticized as containing scientific inaccuracies.[9] A point questioned is whether Bokors or Caplatas[10] (the priests and priestesses) who are associated with creating "zombies" can keep "zombies" in a pharmacologically induced trance for many years.[11] As part of his Haitian investigations, Davis commissioned the exhumation of a recently buried child.[12] [13] (Dead human tissue is supposed to be a part of the "zombie powder" used by Bokors and Caplatas to produce zombies.) This has been criticized as a breach of ethics.[14]

The strictly scientific criticism of Davis's zombie project has focused on the claims about the chemical composition of the "zombie powder". Several samples of the powder were analyzed for TTX levels by experts in 1986. They reported [15] that only "insignificant traces of tetrodotoxin [were found] in the samples of 'zombie powder' which were supplied for analysis by Davis" and that "it can be concluded that the widely circulated claim in the lay press to the effect that tetrodotoxin is the causal agent in the initial zombification process is without factual foundation". Davis's claims were subsequently defended by other scientists doing further analyses,[16] and these findings were criticized in turn for poor methodology and technique by the original skeptics.[17]

Aside from the question of whether or not "zombie powder" contains significant amounts of TTX, the underlying concept of "tetrodotoxin zombification" has also been questioned more directly on a physiological basis. TTX, which blocks sodium channels on the neural membrane, produces numbness, slurred speech, and possibly, paralysis or even respiratory failure and death in severe cases. As an isolated pharmacological agent, it is not known to produce the trance-like or "mental slave" state typical of the zombies of Haitian mythology, or of Davis's descriptions.

Personal life

Davis is married. He and his wife, Gail Percy, have lived in several places, sometimes with concurrent residences in Washington, D.C., Vancouver, the Stikine Valley of northern British Columbia, and Bowen Island. They have two adult daughters, Tara and Raina.[18] On April 13, 2018, Davis was granted Colombian nationality and citizenship by President Juan Manuel Santos.[19]

Awards and accolades

Publications

As author

Photography books

As editor

Video

Media

See also

Notes and References

  1. Wade Davis, acclaimed anthropologist and author, joins the University of British Columbia. December 18, 2013. ubc.ca. University of British Columbia. July 24, 2017.
  2. The Unraveling of America. . 6 August 2020.
  3. Web site: WADE DAVIS. 19 October 2022.
  4. Web site: The White Leviathan. . John. Keay. 24 September 2014.
  5. Web site: Exhibition showcases Mount Qomolangma's illustrious history. 28 May 2022.
  6. Web site: Amazon Conservation Association. Building the Ark: Annual Report 2009. 2009. 24.
  7. Web site: Nissan & Zero Emissions. Ben . Abramowitz. cargocollective.com. July 24, 2017.
  8. Davis. Wade . 1983. The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 9. 1 . 85–104 . 6668953 . 10.1016/0378-8741(83)90029-6.
  9. Hines. Terrence . Zombies and Tetrodotoxin. Skeptical Inquirer. 32. 3 . May–June 2008. 60–62.
  10. Book: Hall . Michael . Historical Dictionary of Haiti . Scarecrow Press, Inc . 978-0-8108-7810-5 . 326.
  11. Booth. W.. April 15, 1988. Voodoo Science. Science. 240. 4850. 274–277. 10.1126/science.3353722 . 3353722. 1988Sci...240..274B.
  12. Book: Davis, Wade . 1985. The Serpent and the Rainbow. New York. Simon & Schuster. 92–95.
  13. Book: Davis, Wade. 1988. Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie. University of North Carolina Press. 115–116.
  14. Anderson. W.H. . 1988. Tetrodotoxin and the Zombie Phenomenon. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 23. 1 . 121–126. 10.1016/0378-8741(88)90122-5. 3419200 .
  15. Kao. C.Y. . T. . Yasumoto . 1986. Tetrodotoxin and the Haitian Zombie. Toxicon. 24. 8 . 747–749 . 10.1016/0041-0101(86)90098-x . 3775790.
  16. Benedek . C. . Rivier . L. . 1989 . Evidence for the presence of tetrodotoxin in a powder used in Haiti for zombification . Toxicon . 27 . 4. 473–480 . 10.1016/0041-0101(89)90210-9. 2728032 .
  17. Kao. C.Y. . T. . Yasumoto . 1990. Tetrodotoxin in 'Zombie Powder'. Toxicon. 28. 2 . 129–132 . 10.1016/0041-0101(90)90330-a . 2339427.
  18. Web site: Wade Davis, Anthropologist/Ethnobotanist: Explorers Council, Explorer-in-Residence, 2000-2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20120102060136/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/wade-davis/ . dead . January 2, 2012 . National Geographic Society. NationalGeographic.com. July 24, 2017.
  19. Web site: Otorgan la nacionalidad colombiana a Wade Davis, el antropólogo del Amazonas. 12 April 2018.
  20. Web site: The Explorers Club -.
  21. Web site: Roy-Sole. Monique. Gold Medal 2009 Winner - Wade Davis. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. 9 February 2017.
  22. Web site: CBC Massey Lecture Series . 2009. CBC.ca. July 24, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20091013111334/http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey/massey2009.html. October 13, 2009. dead.
  23. Web site: Colorado College NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER-IN-RESIDENCE TO SPEAK AT CC'S 129th COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY. 2020-08-15. www.coloradocollege.edu.
  24. Web site: National Tropical Botanical Garden. Fairchild Award. dead. NTBG.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20120525131409/http://ntbg.org/gardens/kampong-news.php?show=news&id=962. 2012-05-25.
  25. Web site: National Tropical Botanical Garden. Annual Report 2012. 2012. 9. July 24, 2017.
  26. Web site: Into the Silence author Wade Davis wins Samuel Johnson award . . Alison. Flood . November 12, 2012 . November 13, 2012.
  27. Web site: Shortlist 2012. boardmantasker.com. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120916105935/http://www.boardmantasker.com/site/shortlist2012.htm. September 16, 2012. July 24, 2017.
  28. Web site: Six B.C. writers shortlisted for 2012 Governor General's awards . straight.com. Stephen. Thomson. . October 2, 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20121101141528/http://www.straight.com/article-799496/vancouver/six-bc-writers-shortlisted-2012-governor-generals-awards. November 1, 2012. July 24, 2017.
  29. Web site: 2012 Banff Mountain Book Competition – Finalists. dead . banffcentre.ca. August 17, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130817162035/http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfestival/competitions/book/2012/entries.aspx. The Banff Center. July 24, 2017.
  30. Web site: Order of Canada Appointments. Governor General of Canada. December 31, 2015.
  31. Web site: Wade Davis - Distinguished Explorer 2017 . Roy Chapman Andrews Society.
  32. Web site: Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration 2017 Recipients - Pat and Baiba Morrow, and Wade Davis . rcgs.org . Royal Canadian Geographical Society . 3 August 2018.
  33. 25765894. Review of One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest by Wade Davis. Bass, Joby. Yearbook. Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers. 2000. 26. 157–159.
  34. Web site: Science Goes to the Movies: Zombies. Sonia . Shechet Epstein . April 7, 2016. Scienceandfilm.org. Museum of the Moving Image. July 24, 2017.

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