ears ago when I was studying furniture design in graduate school, I had a Danish professor in wood fabrication who claimed that a particular Danish bow saw was the best saw in the world and proudly demonstrated it every chance he got. As with all European and North American saws, the teeth pointed forward, so you sawed by pushing forward. All his students had to learn how to use this ćDanish Wonder.ä One day, a visiting professor from a Japanese design school explained how the intricate joints in Japanese furniture were made. He pulled out a funny-looking Japanese saw with the teeth pointing backward. Rather than pushing to saw, he pulled, and with it he commenced cutting one of the most elegant joints we had ever seen. Our Danish professor watched in amazement and after trying it himself declared that this was the best saw he had ever used. In actuality, it turned out that the Danish saw was superior in some applications and the Japanese in others.
This story comes to mind when one asks why anyone should care whether the world loses its cultural diversity. Does it make any real difference if no one knows how to speak Manx anymore or how to make a certain style of blowgun?
We think it does, for a number of reasons. First, there is simply the human right to live life in the way one wishes to. This is why we fund projects to assist a village or tribe that has asked for help in documenting its traditions or in making a graceful transition to a more mainstream culture. In other words, we believe that diversity is a good thing in absolute terms.
We also believe that diversity is a good thing in practical terms. One of the most compelling reasons for preserving cultural diversity is its link to biological diversity. Many cultural traditions are simply the result of generations of people learning how to live in a given place successfully. People who live in deserts learn how to conserve water and how to grow crops without it. Different cultures, then, are societiesā responses to different ecosystems and, by definition, must be sustainable to survive. It is no coincidence that the places with the greatest cultural diversity are the same places with the highest biodiversity÷and the same places where each is most threatened, especially in this age of rapid globalization. If we humans would keep our planetās ecosystems intact, we would be well advised also to keep our cultural systems intact.
Furthermore, since no one culture has all the answers to how to live on Earth, we all have a great deal to learn from one another. That is, we need both the Danish saw and the Japanese saw. More to the point, though, we need a worldview that is both open and receptive to ideas and concepts entirely different from our own.
That is what the following anthology of articles from the Earthwatch Journal attempts to provide. Tackling a range of subjects that stretch from exploring our possible links to Neanderthals to debating the pros and cons of the Internet for indigenous peoples, these pieces reflect Earthwatch Instituteās mission: to find solutions to sustainability and open minds through the practice of scientific field research. We hope you have a productive journey through these pages.
÷Roger Bergen
Years ago when I was studying furniture design in graduate school, I had a Danish professor in wood fabrication who claimed that a particular Danish bow saw was the best saw in the world and proudly demonstrated it every chance he got. As with all European and North American saws, the teeth pointed forward, so you sawed by pushing forward. All his students had to learn how to use this ćDanish Wonder.ä One day, a visiting professor from a Japanese design school explained how the intricate joints in Japanese furniture were made. He pulled out a funny-looking Japanese saw with the teeth pointing backward. Rather than pushing to saw, he pulled, and with it he commenced cutting one of the most elegant joints we had ever seen. Our Danish professor watched in amazement and after trying it himself declared that this was the best saw he had ever used. In actuality, it turned out that the Danish saw was superior in some applications and the Japanese in others.
