I disagree, in that I believe that Mr. Davis does answered the question emphatically. I think you need to re-read the last page of the book. When a person with very little to offer does so to a total stranger, it displays the idealogies of of ancient societies that are missing in modern culture. The lack of social conscience is a dire consequence of this decade, and is the basis of many movements trying restructure our habits and concepts of the world around us.

I agree with you completely. Davis added a human touch to the book, very personal, which by no means made the book any less important. I mentioned "A Short History of Progress", which I read for one of my courses, because it had more of a Western mode of thinking and presentation in comparison to "Wayfinders", which would most definitely be an interesting complementary read for students.

Explicit short statements and 'building an argument' is a type of wisdom that is valued in the West, but not by all cultures. I would have been disappointed had he modelled a Western mode of thinking in the book. I am thinking of using this as a textbook as it models the kind of knowledge he discusses. It is not something that students could read and answer multiple guess or short answer questions too, more something that a student experiences to get a more complete sense of what David is talking about.