Re-forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity, Vol. 5 Book

I found this book a little difficult to follow. It wasn't that it was poorly written, or that the individual parts didn't make sense. I found myself waiting for the kicker in his argument, the part where he told the reader why ancient wisdom really does matter.

The chapters all told very compelling stories about various indigenous cultures, and documented the decline of these same cultures in the face of "economic development". Davis talks about different ways of seeing the world, and various realities that indigenous groups live.

The real argument in the book, where Davis does in fact reveal why everyone should do more to heed traditional knowledge and ways of living, doesn't emerge until the final ten pages. I think the reader would have been well served to see the argument a bit more explicitly. Given the nature of the book - it was written as a series of independent lectures - the onus on the author to make an explicit point should have been pretty clear. A bunch of stories does not make a coherent point.

In any case, the reader emerges with a wealth of new ways of seeing the world, and a profound appreciation for other cultures. It's a good read, and very worthwhile.