“In later journeys to Borneo and the high Arctic, Tibet and the forests of northern Canada, the swamps of the Orinoco delta and the deserts of the Middle East, I found myself increasingly drawn to the wonder of cultural diversity, and especially to those societies that have yet to succumb to the forces of modernization.

“Indeed, one of the intense pleasures of travel is the opportunity to live among peoples who have not forgotten the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind, touch it in the stones polished by rain, recognize its taste in the bitter leaves of plants. Just to know that nomadic hunters exist, that jaguar shaman yet journey beyond the Milky Way, that the myths of the Athabaskan elders still resonate with meaning, is to remember that our world does not exist in some absolute sense but rather is only one model of reality. The Penan in the forests of Borneo, the Vodoun acolytes in Haiti, the wandering holy men of the Sahara, teach us that there are other options, other possibilities, other ways of thinking and interacting with the Earth. This idea has always filled me with hope.”