MEGHAN GUATTERY
Managing Editor
From Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortes to the fictional likes of Captain Nemo and Indiana Jones, explorers have been sharing their stories for centuries. And after a year-long series of lectures, film screenings, conferences and more, this year’s Convocation ended with a little bit of storytelling.
When the Convocation Committee announced it had an explorer lined up as this year’s Convocation keynote speaker, attendees might have been expecting tales of hidden treasure and nautical excursions.
However, what greeted them on April 12 was just the opposite.
A little digging into Dr. Wade Davis’ background reveals that he is no ordinary explorer. He holds not one, not two, but three degrees from Harvard University, is currently an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, and has traveled to more countries than can be counted on his digits.
Rather than telling his own adventurous tales, Davis spent a good portion of his time on stage sharing stories of others, one of the most interesting being the story of none other than a temporary transvestite.
“[He] showed how trans identity isn’t specific to western society,” said Zach Beaudoin, a senior English and international studies double major. “I thought his unveiling of a world often out of touch to most of us was the single most important part of his speech.”
While, to those in foreign countries, it may be considered heinous for a boy to be clothed in his sister’s garments, the people of the Chinchero district of Peru consider it an honor. Annually, the fastest boy in each hamlet is given the honor of becoming a woman. He then must lead all able-bodied men on a run, over the course of 24 hours, of the community boundaries.
Fortunately for nearly 50-year-old Davis, he fit the bill and was given the opportunity to join them as the only outsider to ever partake in the event.
“The metaphor is clear,” said Davis. “You go into the mountain as an individual, but through exhaustion, through sacrifice, you emerge as a community that has once again reaffirmed its sense of place in the planet.”
While compared to western practices these may initially seem juvenile or for the uneducated, Davis stressed that it is, in fact, quite the opposite.
“Just to know that, in the Amazon, jaguar shamans still journey beyond the Milky Way, or that [in the] high Arctic, the myths of the Inuit elders still resonate with meaning, or that the Himalayan buddhists still pursue the breath of the dharma,” said Davis, “is to remember the central revelation of anthropology, and that’s the idea that the world in which you were born doesn’t exist in some absolute sense, but it’s just one model of reality…
“The other peoples of the world are not failed attempts at being you [or] being modern. In fact, every culture is, by definition, a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human?”
Through others’ stories, Davis was able to shed some light on the diversity of what he has coined as the ethnosphere — the entirety of thoughts, dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by human imagination.
“[He] advocated for the communication and mixing of civilizations to understand how to sustain ourselves in the face of global consumerism and climate change,” said Beaudoin.
Beaudoin played a vital role in bringing Davis to campus. Nearly one year after first discovering the speaker in a Global Affairs class, Beaudoin had the opportunity to encourage the Convocation Committee to consider Davis.
Nearly two years after his happenstance discovery of the explorer, Beaudoin was able to take the stage to introduce Davis in King Concert Hall.
“I didn’t have any expectations initially or even fathom that he would be coming,” said Beaudoin, “but as time went on, I felt that he was an important figure that could potentially propel Fredonia in our movement of sustainability and racial enlightenment.”
For some, like Class of 1974 Fredonia alumna Cheryl Ritch, Davis’ travels took her on her own adventure.
“I had been kind of taken into another world and shown a glimpse of all these places that I will never physically go,” said Ritch. “There’s an incredible value in so many different cultures. We have a very narrow focus, and we don’t always see that.”
Fredonia librarian Cindy Yochym agreed with Ritch.
“I think the most profound thing, I suppose, was that we, in our culture, are not the only ones on this planet,” said Yochym. “I think it’s good to be enlightened about that, and we need to appreciate that.”
With that realization must come change.
However, Davis did not wind up his speech advocating through uplifting messages or unrealistic activism tips.
“He clearly realizes that pointing fingers solves nothing,” said Kelsea Rogers, a junior geology major. “Instead, he made us reconsider words and thoughts that have been segregating humans throughout history … I agree that passion and the willingness to change are the most essential of tools … With the causative intellect of a scientist and the diverse ethical perspectives of an anthropologist, he knew not to say too much.”
And in said manner, Davis concluded the Convocation with a final thought:
“I think, in a way, that’s the ultimate message of indigenous people, that there are other options, other ways of being, other possibilities of life itself.”
Do you have a suggestion for a future convocation speaker? Email Convocation Committee chair Jennifer Hildebrand at Jennifer.Hildebrand@fredonia.edu.