Clouded Leopard: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire

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Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Limited, Sep 1, 2008 - Social Science - 231 pages
Wade Davis has been called 'a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity?’ Driven by the desire to discover new plants for healing and visions, as well as to learn about other ways of knowing the wild, he journeys from the rain forests of Borneo to the mountains of Tibet, from the ice floes of the Arctic to the sands of the Sahara.

Along the way, Davis samples the first hallucinogen from the animal kingdom, searches for the legendary clouded leopard and reveals the dimensions of a potential worldwide economic disaster involving rubber, “the white blood of the forest?’ With passion and insight, he describes Vodoun priests, Inuit narwhal hunters and jaguar shaman who journey beyond the Milky Way. From his travels, he returns with captivating stories of unusual individuals, ancient shamanic wisdom about healing and a deeper understanding of the connections between traditional peoples and their homelands.

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About the author (2008)

Wade Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. Named by the NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, he has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” In recent years his work has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Australia, Colombia, Vanuatu, Mongolia and the high Arctic of Nunuvut and Greenland. An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University.

A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed river guide, has worked as park ranger, forestry engineer, and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published 180 scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian myth and religion to the global biodiversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians. He has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Outside, Harpers, Fortune, Men’s Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Scientific American, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, and numerous other international publications.

When not in the field, Davis and his wife Gail Percy divide their time between Washington, D.C., Vancouver, and the Stikine Valley of northern British Columbia. They have two children.

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