Name: Dreams from endangered cultures
Uploaded: 2007-01-09T00:11:00Z
Duration: 21 min 47 s
Description: With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.

With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.

Dreams from endangered cultures

Human cultures are disappearing faster than species, with half of the world's 6,000 languages no longer taught to children. Each language and tradition encodes a unique way of seeing reality, from the Barasana who marry outside their language to the Kogi who train shamans in darkness for 18 years. When a language dies every two weeks, a whole lineage of wisdom, myth, and perspective vanishes. The survival of cultural diversity is as vital to the planet as the preservation of its biological life.

Losing Languages Means Losing Worlds Of Human Possibility

anthropology

culture

environment

film

global issues

language

photography

indigenous peoples

TED Stage Talk

Wade Davis: Dreams from endangered cultures