In this weeks readings, especially “A Mortal Occupation” by Susan Orlean and “The River of Doubt” by Candice Millard, I was struck by the size and scale of the adventures that people go on in order to make new discoveries on Earth. In “A Mortal Occupation” there are stories of people giving their lives in order to find and categorize a particular kind of flower. The fact that people were willing to give their lives for a flower illustrates the strong human desire to discover every part of our world and categorize it. Orlean writes, “As modern living became chaotic and bewildering, the Victorians looked for order in the universe, an outline that could organize their knowledge of every living thing and maybe at the same time rationalize the meaning of existence” (p. 68). The orchid hunters demonstrate not only the human tendency to collect and categorize, but also the quest to find our meaning in the world.

When reading “The River of Doubt” I was impressed by the way that Colonel Rondon treated the natives in the jungles of Brazil. He does not treat the natives as unintelligent, wild savages, but he treated them as fellow human beings. By not attempting to overtake the natives and their culture he was able to establish a predominately friendly relationship with them, which ultimately paid off as some of them became helpful to the expedition. By not establishing the natives as the “other” and by using a policy of nonviolence, he avoided many additional problems that he may have faced on his adventure. Rondon respected the natives and their culture, unlike what occurred for natives of north America.