Nicol itibaren Parang, Odisha 759130, Hindistan
Abram taps into the ancient wisdom of oral and indigenous cultures. He outlines how the written word and phonetic language have contributed heavily to divorcing the modern western mind from the natural world. He uses phenomenology and etymology to show what has been lost as humans have silenced the voices of the the earth's landscape. He draws from the Navajo, Hopi, Mayan, Aboriginal, Plains Indians, Yukon, Hebrew, and Greek traditions to reveal the forgotten power found in reading the landscape, talking with the trees, listening to the wind, and finding meaning in stories rather than static language. He hurls challenges at the underlying assumptions that uphold the modern mindset. Abram focuses almost exclusively on the worth of oral cultures and the environment, but undervalues technological advances and the boons of the market. He also only pays lip service to the joys never possible for exclusively oral cultures. His language is challenging and probably too erudite. However, Abram uses modern and acceptable means to awaken us to our primordial past: the natural world as a living, breathing, spiritually unifying being.