The Ragged Edge of the World: Encounters at the Frontier Where Modernity, Wildlands, and Indigenous Peoples Meet

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The Ragged Edge of the World: Encounters at the Frontier Where Modernity, Wildlands, and Indigenous Peoples Meet

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 60 ratings · 18 reviews

A noted environmental writer relives his experiences of how earth's far corners have yielded to or resisted modernity.

For forty years Eugene Linden has explored global environmental issues in books and for publications ranging from National Geographic and Time to Foreign Affairs. Linden's diverse assignments have brought him to ragged edges of the globe, the sites where...more

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published March 17th 2011 by Viking Adult

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Jan 08, 2012 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction, travel-adventure

During the late 20th and early 21st century, the indigenous peoples and unspoiled environments of the world have been quickly assimilated and/or decimated by the modern consumer culture. Eugene Linden has spent the past 40 years as a journalist traveling to these wild places at "the ragged edge of the world" to see firsthand and to document the changes in enviroment and culture in these remote areas as the world encroaches upon them.

This series of essays serves as a 40-year travelogue of Linden...more During the late 20th and early 21st century, the indigenous peoples and unspoiled environments of the world have been quickly assimilated and/or decimated by the modern consumer culture. Eugene Linden has spent the past 40 years as a journalist traveling to these wild places at "the ragged edge of the world" to see firsthand and to document the changes in enviroment and culture in these remote areas as the world encroaches upon them.

This series of essays serves as a 40-year travelogue of Linden's excursions into the wild. Through his eyes we see the places where he encountered the untamed, unspoiled areas and the peoples and wildlife which inhabit them, and we learn of the ways in which their natural environment and way of life are endangered.

Linden's published work in popular magazines, scientific journals and books, has helped to draw attention to the fragility of these areas, and his voice, along with others, has helped to change the actions of governments to the degree that many of these areas are now protected, albeit tenuously, from further decimation.

"Now, almost miraculously, Midway is once again a republic of birds. Ive been to a number of places where wild animals are trusting of humans, but perhaps none so unlikely as Midway atoll. After more than a century of abuse at the hands of man - first being slaughtered for their feathers by hunters, then being paved over by Seabees, then shelled by the Japanese during World War II , and finally Osterized by the engines of the planes of the U.S. Strategic Air Command during the Cold War - the albatross and other birds don't seem to bear a grudge. Maybe that's because they've won." Midway, p. 186

"So it is in the realm of culture. When I began my career traditional cultures were widely viewed as impediments to development. In my book, The Alms Race, I quoted a development official who stated this principle succinctly, "the village way of life is the root cause of poverty." Now that develoment and modernity have driven traditional cultures to the brink of eradication, more and more people from developed countries have come to recognize that not only do the traditional cultures provide safety nets and meaning for tribes around the world, they are stores of knowledge and often-wondrous expertise." Esotericas, p. 223

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Feb 18, 2012 Claudia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Eugene Linden traveled the world on assignments as a journalist. Often times he would learn compelling facts and make observations not on point with his current assignment. He kept these facts and this book is a compilation of these compelling tidbits from the four corners of the globe.

First stop Is Borneo. The inhabitants saw all sorts of miraculous items come from the Europeans. However they never could quite believe the (inept) Europeans were the actual creators of these products that came f...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Booknblues rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa, adventure, nonfiction, environment

The Ragged Edge of the World
by Eugene Linden
4 stars
pp. 260

I once imagined myself as adventurous and thought that I would one day visit the ragged edge of the world. Now I realize that I am quite content at home with my three cats and a book which will take me there and Eugene Linden does a superb job of escorting me around various ragged edges of our planet as New Guinea, Congo, Antarctica, Peru, Borneo and Midway Island.

Linden has long been a journalist, beginning in the Vietnam war and since t...more The Ragged Edge of the World
by Eugene Linden
4 stars
pp. 260

I once imagined myself as adventurous and thought that I would one day visit the ragged edge of the world. Now I realize that I am quite content at home with my three cats and a book which will take me there and Eugene Linden does a superb job of escorting me around various ragged edges of our planet as New Guinea, Congo, Antarctica, Peru, Borneo and Midway Island.

Linden has long been a journalist, beginning in the Vietnam war and since then specializing in environmental journalism. The Ragged Edge of the World is a series of vignettes about the places he has visited over his career. He enthralls the reader with stories of indigenous people, endangered species and their fragility and strengths in facing encroaching civilization, pollution and global warming.

Linden touches on several issues of concern in this book, one being the loss of indigenous knowledge:

"Tim mentioned a story he'd heard about the Penans, the last hunting and gathering tribe that still pursued a nomadic lifestyle in the highlands of Borneo. He explained that while those in the highlands would hunt wild boar timed to the appearance of a particular butterfly, their children away at school in the towns were already forgetting this tidbit of local knowledge. They might vaguely remember that their uncle would pay attention to this butterfly, but they couldn't say why he cared about it, or which kind of butterfly it was. While such knowledge might seem trivial, Tim noted that the relationship between the butterfly and the boar might be liked to the fruiting pattern of a rainforest tree, and such ecological connections could be invaluable to scientist trying to understand the dynamics and vulnerabilities of the local ecosystem.

That Story offered the prefect metaphor for a worldwide phenomenon I was studying --the loss of indigenous knowledge-- and suggested that learning it could be as elusive, fragile and evanescent as a butterfly itself."

I found this an intriguing idea, realizing how often civilization has dismissed indigenous people and felt the need to save them and civilized them without realizing that all people can make such valuable contributions to our civilized world. Later in the book ties this notion with that of primates losing their culture because of encroaching civilization:

"About ten years later science finally caught up with what Pygmies knew all along. This story about what we can learn from listening to those who live in the forest. It is also a story about how little we still know about our closest relatives. As noted earlier, what is a cultural holocaust for the indigenous people at the ragged edge of the world has reified into a literal holocaust for the great apes. Even those chimps that have survived in a few isolated enclaves still risk losing their culture. At the eleventh hour for these apes, we are finally discovering how rich their own culture is."

This is a favorite type of book for me which offers insight into animals, civilizations and parts of the world which I will never visit. I found Linden's book to be very readable and I looked forward to each new area and chapter.(less)

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May 16, 2011 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Ragged Edge of the World, Eugene Linden aims to tell the untold stories of his globetrotting adventures as a journalist covering environmental and cultural loss and resilience at the intersection of the modern world and wilderness and the societies that live in the wilderness.

The earlier chapters seemed to lack cohesiveness and came off like anecdotes remembered from long-ago adventures, rather than stories with beginnings, ends and meanings. I have a feeling they'd be more enjoyable to a rea...more In Ragged Edge of the World, Eugene Linden aims to tell the untold stories of his globetrotting adventures as a journalist covering environmental and cultural loss and resilience at the intersection of the modern world and wilderness and the societies that live in the wilderness.

The earlier chapters seemed to lack cohesiveness and came off like anecdotes remembered from long-ago adventures, rather than stories with beginnings, ends and meanings. I have a feeling they'd be more enjoyable to a reader of Linden's other works, but this is the first book I've read by him, so they came across as incomplete and fragmentary. That's not to say they didn't fulfill the task he set for himself in the introduction, to tell the remembered fragments of stories that didn't make it into his reports, but to me they were fragmentary enough to make me contemplate giving up on the book despite its consistently clear writing. The latter chapters didn't have this problem, suggesting that he had more unpublished material to draw on, or simply remembered the more recent trips better than those at the beginning of his career. In both cases, I'd have liked, as a writer, to hear more about the challenges of reporting exciting stories such as these, beyond the logistics of traveling in Africa, say, but there was enough to keep that side of me interested, too.

Regardless, he makes his points well. In his lifetime, the presence of wilderness and the strength of indigenous culture has gone from endangered to nearly non-existent. Development, in the form of logging or all-inclusive resorts, has destroyed most of the authenticity, if not the environment, of places he cherished earlier in life. And with global travel so common, it's unlikely we'll find new places with true wilderness or cultures untouched by consumer culture. If "we" do, we will likely destroy them as we have the others, Linden reports, with sobering if not unexpected persuasiveness. In the final chapter he makes a quick case for a market-based continent-wide conservation scheme that is untested but, he says, holds promise for protecting ecosystems more effectively than we have done to date. I'm not convinced that would work, either, but at least he's looking for solutions in addition to reporting on the damage we've done.

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Mar 20, 2013 Michael Foley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

If Linden ever wrote a bucket list of places to visit, he must surely have done it all twice by now. This is a fascinating study of where modernity and indigenous cultures collide, from the frozen North to the jungles of Cuba (and everywhere in between). The world is at risk of losing indigenous knowledge as more and more people leave behind their tribal life. Its disturbing that we may lose thousands of years of collective knowledge in just a few generations. Linden is sending out a warning tha...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Mignon De Klerk rated it 5 of 5 stars

The author draws on his remarkable 40-year career as an ecological journalist to tell the (yes, depressing) story of the world's vanishing wildlife and indigenous human cultures. I was able to forgive the book's almost complete disregard of problematic women's issues in many of the places discussed, because of the importance behind the primary message: modern civilization and the consumer society are pushing the planet and its delicate ecosystem of animals (the human animal included) and ecology...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Todd Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: environment-science

In The Ragged Edge of the World Eugene Linden (writer and correspondent for Time and National Geographic magazines, among others) describes his travels to remote corners of the globe and his encounters with environmental degradation, habitat destruction, species loss and the pressures of cultural homogenization on traditional populations. The topics are familiar ones for environmentalists: global warming, wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone, the ozone hole, sea ice disintegration and the plight o...more In The Ragged Edge of the World Eugene Linden (writer and correspondent for Time and National Geographic magazines, among others) describes his travels to remote corners of the globe and his encounters with environmental degradation, habitat destruction, species loss and the pressures of cultural homogenization on traditional populations. The topics are familiar ones for environmentalists: global warming, wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone, the ozone hole, sea ice disintegration and the plight of polar bears to name a few. In additional Linden writes, somewhat less convincingly, about cultural extinction among native tribes throughout the world.

The stories are anecdotal in nature, but Linden ties his experiences in with descriptions of the broader scientific consensus of the topics. Taken as a whole one is faced with a bleak picture of a world in which the relentless pressures of short term economic interests has taken precedence over ecological sustainability and long term survival of endangered species. Simply put, the natural world is losing its battle with modernity. Unfortunately, humans appear to have forgotten that they too are a product of nature.

Though there’s nothing wrong with Linden’s writing, I found his approach to environmental issues to be rather conventional. By far the most interesting part of the book involved Linden’s anecdotes of his travels. Whether it was the difficulties he encountered traveling in Africa, his experience with clever orangutans in Borneo, or his travels to the nature preserves of Cuba, these personal accounts revealed all too clearly the difficulties humans face in overcoming their inherent shortcomings, particularly where it comes to protecting the environment on which our survival depends.

Linden also describes the loss of native culture and indigenous languages that is occurring as traditional societies are absorbed into the broader culture of the state. He argues that this trend is tragic because the detailed knowledge about the environment that these cultures have acquired in order to survive is being lost. There’s some truth to this claim, but I think it is limited. First, these traditional societies lack knowledge of the scientific method and as a result, their knowledge of the natural world contains a mish-mash of truth, anecdote, hear-say and superstition. While there may be something to learn, it would not be without considerable effort to weed out the truth from fiction. Secondly, it’s easy to romanticize these traditional lifestyles if you don’t have to live in them yourself. When a temporary drought brings famine and starvation, a small cut brings the potential for infection and disease and inter-tribal conflict results in high levels of mortality it’s easy to see why these people may be willing to abandon aspects of their culture in exchange for the benefits of modern society. It is not possible, in fact it would be immoral, to force them to do otherwise.

Finally, I have to take issue with Linden’s flirtation with the superstitious woo-woo of traditional healers and shaman. The rites he describe are those you’d expect from a two-bit vaudeville magician. While these so-called ‘healing’ rituals may result in some benefit due to the placebo effect, they may also produce immeasurable damage by causing truly sick individuals to avoid seeking actual medical care. That western scientific medicine is eliminating the charlatanism of the traditional shaman should be applauded rather than treated as cause for regret. (less)

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May 30, 2011 Ryan Mishap rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: environment, harbinger-of-doom, native-struggle, personal-writing, science-natural-history

Though these are the stories that didn't fit into the magazine articles he wrote, Linden can't shed the journalistic-style--when he does, it is less like reading the New York Times and more engaging.

Civilization is killing the planet and erasing indigenous cultures worldwide and the places where this happens are the places Linden has traveled during his long career. The anecdotes, facts, encounters, science, and descriptions are often good. These are places--Easter Island, Antarctica, Africa--w...more

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Apr 20, 2011 samm rated it 5 of 5 stars

Eugene Linden is amazing. I can't put this down! Every story sucks you in. The book is a collection of vignettes about the places that Linden has traveled and what he has seen there. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in culture and the environment.

I learned things in this book that weren't even on my radar before. I'm so glad I decided to pick it up.

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Feb 26, 2012 Du rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I read a different book than I thought I was going to read. The flap sounded much more travel or government based. The reality is good, but not what I wanted. It was much more environmental, which makes sense for someone who writes for National Geographic and Smithsonian. The text was very well written and flowed really well, which is why I kept reading. Some of the places the author visits are amazing and the details are great. That said, I am not too interested in the wild flora of Vietnam.

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Jul 20, 2011 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-nonfiction, nature, culture, library-loan

Gosh, this book was fabulous. Linden has such an engaging style - like you are just having a casual conversation. Each chapter is an essay that focuses on a location or people group that he has encountered during his long career as a foreign correspondent and journalist. After reading each chapter, I did my own research and further reading... he has a way of really piquing the reader's interest to learn more.

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Jun 24, 2011 Erica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Strong collection of essays about the "edges of the world" that Eugene Linden has visited while working as a journalist.

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Oct 09, 2011 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

This should have been much better than it was, given the author's extensive travels and the amount of time he had to collect the various pieces that appear here, many of which are actually ancillary or supplemental narratives related to his reporting for National Geographic and other publications. The effect is episodic, but somehow less than the sum of its parts, and I was surprised, given my deep interest in the topic, that I found myself bored at several points in this one. I hope the appeara...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Kira rated it 5 of 5 stars

A fascinating second look at places and people overlooked in the pursuit of other, more immediate news.

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Aug 17, 2012 LuAnn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Well, then ... this was a new and interesting take on the way humans have encroached on wildlife, animals and hidden tribes. It was one man's opinion (the author) as he traveled to do some environmental reporting for various publications. I enjoyed reading his thoughts, however, I found many of them a bit outdated as he has been collecting these stories for decades. A good read, all in all, though.

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Jun 09, 2011 Steven Farmer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent read.

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Jun 18, 2012 Catharine rated it 2 of 5 stars

I liked the idea of what this book would be about, but I don't think it was carried off very well. The writing was disjointed and didn't form a cohesive narrative. I think selecting the "encounters" more carefully and a different writing style would have been very successful.

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Apr 04, 2012 giao rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historic-preservation, education

The section on Vietnam's forests is incredibly powerful to me...

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“Time and again our best and brightest have alerted society to looming problems, but our persistent pattern has been to ignore the warnings and suffer the consequences. The pathetic refrain of recent years --'Nobody saw this coming'--is always a self-serving lie.” — 2 people liked it

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