"...the most apocalyptic scenario in the realm of biological diversity scarcely approaches what we know to be the most optimistic scenario in the realm of cultural diversity. Within a generation or two, we're losing half of humanity's intellectual, spiritual and psychological legacy."
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Davis is responsible for coining the term "ethnosphere."
In the same way that we think of the world's flora and fauna as the biosphere, Davis hoped, we would use the term to describe the world's languages, belief systems and cultures, and that the word would also enter the public's vernacular and its consciousness.
"We have a plan to set off on a series of ethnospheric expeditions around the world to document the great stories of humanity."
And while it may seem that the Web site could become the equivalent of an electronic zoo, where people come to "visit" those things they can no longer see in the wild, Rainier sees the project as a realization of the concept of a Global Village.
Both men describe themselves as storytellers, and want to relay back accounts of the world's people other than the daily reporting of famine, natural disasters, civil war and ethnic strife that makes up most of what he hears about the rest of the world.
"We believe that politics are not persuasive and polemics never change anything, but storytelling can change the world," Davis says.
Kisha Ferguson Globe and Mail (CA) July 16, 2003link from ArtsJournal 7/16
