This idea, which Davis calls "one of the greatest intellectual lies of history," was of course proven wrong by advances in genetic technology that showed that all humans are cut from the same genetic cloth. The corollary of this truth — an insight Davis feels isn't highlighted enough — is that intellectual creativity is a matter of choice.
"Whether genius is putting a man on the moon — in a way the greatest technological achievement of the West — or the Tibetan Buddhist tradition [of] understanding the nature of mind over a 2,500 year intellectual pursuit of the nature of existence is simply a matter of choice and cultural orientation," he said.
As historical and ideological issues have yet to be fully addressed, it has led to the other, more contemporary, problem of governmental policy that emphasizes economic expediency over the preservation of culture.
"Today the forces affecting culture are many: it can be ill-conceived development plans that encourage nomads to settle down because they are perceived to be an embarrassment to the nation state. It can be ill-conceived acts of industrial developments or deforestation of the homeland of forest people, or mining developments that impact the health of rivers upon which people depend."
Davis says that in every case, indigenous people are being driven to extinction by identifiable forces. "And that's actually a very optimistic observation because it suggests that if human beings are the agents of cultural destruction, we can be the facilitators of cultural survival.
Davis fears that the continued reluctance of governments to make culture a fundamental part of their policy is leading to a less stable world.
"When people lose the comfort of tradition and feel these kinds of pressures of intense change that can provoke a sense of disappointment, disaffection, alienation, you get very strange movements emerging that can be very dangerous. Al-Qaeda is one of these kinds of fantasy movements that invoke a world of Islam that never existed but has to be presumed to have existed for those who are trying to rationalize the humiliation of all these years of chaos in the Middle East. Maintaining the integrity of culture is not an act of sentimentality; it's not an act of nostalgia, its much more than an act of human rights. It's about maintaining the integrity of civilization itself," he said.
Falling on deaf ears
But are politicians and the media listening? Davis doesn't think so. He cites, for example, in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US, a meeting of 4,000 anthropologists from the American Anthropological Association was held in Washington DC where the primary topic of discussion was the attack on the Twin Towers.
"The entire gathering earned a single line in the Washington Post, in the gossip section, that basically said 'the nut cases are in town,'" he said. "And who is more remiss: the government for not having the ability to listen to the one profession that could have explained what was going on or the profession for not having the ability to communicate effectively with the world at large?"
It is these kinds of questions Davis hopes to address as Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic.
"How do we find ways to ensure that all peoples choose the components of their lives and also benefit from the genius of the modern world without that engagement having to demand the death of their ethnicity or who they are?" he asked.
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