I am in the field today, and will be back tomorrow with a special Labor Day edition of Field Notes.
In the meantime, you may be interested in this essay by the anthropologist Wade Davis in the travel section of the Financial Times on the history, ethics and mental modes of exploration:
“The true and original explorers, men and women who actually went where no humans had been, were those who walked out of Africa some 65,000 years ago… Since then, terrestrial exploration has rarely been divorced from power and conquest.”
In addition to a fascinating roundup of famous European “discoveries” that were anything but, Davis has some excellent (if oblique) tips about how to explore the places you already know, and how to use that exploration to penetrate beyond the absorption with the self:
“Wade Davis on the art of exploring,” Financial Times, September 2, 2020.
Enjoy your Sunday and hope to see you back here tomorrow.
