Savages and civilization

the long version

In Indian Givers and Native Roots, renowned anthropologist Jack Weatherford wrote with insight about the epic clash between Native American and European cultures. Now, in Savages and Civilization, Weatherford widens his scope to illuminate a similar struggle that is intensifying today, but this time on a global scale of ethnic strife. From sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic, from the rain forests that straddle the equator to the high plateau of Tibet, indigenous peoples are facing the loss of their cultural identities, but at the same time are demonstrating a growing resistance to the global civilization that threatens to engulf them. Just at the point where civilization seems to have overwhelmed other "tribal" and "uncivilized" societies, war, disease, famine, environmental degradation, and ethnic chaos place civilization on the brink of becoming a victim of its own success - and excess. Should civilization falter, Weatherford argues, those tribal peoples whom civilization once attempted to envelop may be the only ones capable of salvaging it. If we continue to destroy their culture, we may lose the knowledge that helped us survive the millions of years before agriculture and cities, before civilization. Those connections to the past must be preserved - and this may be the last chance to do so. As a result, Savages and Civilization will not only change how history and society are viewed, it will be sure to alter your own self-perception as well.