20th Schwartz Fellow Wade Davis Enthralls Students and Faculty
1/30/2010
For the 20th year, the generosity of Eric A. Schwartz '69 and Michael L. Schwartz '66 has brought a dynamic and influential speaker to Pomfret School. Davis himself said, “The great thing about the Schwartz fellowship is that I’m here for three days! There is lots of time to pull me aside and ask me questions.” He was on campus from January 17th – 19th.
Davis gave two full-school talks during his visit. He also met with many classes in smaller sessions and had the opportunity to lunch with students and faculty during both days. He spoke about the many cultures in the world; especially those he has visited and even lived with. It’s been a gift, he said, to “live among those who still know the old ways.” Davis reminded us that the world in which we were born is “just one model of reality.” These alternative and tribal cultures, he argued, are not “failed attempts at being modern, but unique answers to the question: what does it mean to be human and alive?”
Davis spoke about his time with the Bornean nomads of the rainforest, Aborigines in Australia, Buddhists in Tibet, Polynesian sailors, and the Amazonian People of the Anaconda. He reminded us aptly, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, that genetic studies assure us that “race is an utter fiction” and that we are all quite literally brothers and sisters cut from the same genetic cloth.
Students and faculty alike were enthralled by Davis’ words. Lilah Fones ’11, said of the experience: “Wade Davis's speeches made me think about the culture that I live in every day through the eyes of a South American native and how they could see my culture as strange, when it seems so natural and right to me.” Ray Zeek ’11 noted “conversations about him echoed throughout the hallways and classrooms during his time at Pomfret.” Harrison Schroder ‘13 cited Davis’s enthusiasm as riveting. Ashley Newhall ‘11 agreed. “He had some great stories.”
Davis has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” He has degrees in anthropology and biology and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in ethnobotany. He lived for more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, where he lived among the indigenous peoples in Latin America. He research has also taken him to Haiti, East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Vanatu, and the high arctic Nunavut and Greenland. He is a true 21st century explorer and adventurer, with many insights on how the world is changing.
Davis has penned many books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), Passage of Darkness (1988), Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Shadows in the Sun (1993), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), One River (1996), The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), and Book of Peoples of the World (2008).
A heartfelt Thank You to the Schwartz brothers for making his rewarding visit possible.