Lecture by Nicholas Clapp - Old Magic: Lives of the Desert Shamans

For a thousand generations, desert shamans of the far West sought order in the stars and in the mysteries of their grand, unforgiving landscape. They epitomized a Native American ability "to relate to the land in ways beyond a Western way of thinking." Drawing on the lore of a dozen tribes, the book Old Magic conjures the year-to-year life of a shaman--a life of service to his people, a life fraught with torment and danger, a life often taking a man or woman to the edge of madness. Documentary filmmaker Nicholas Clapp has explored, filmed, and written about the deserts of the world. He has won over seventy major awards for his documentary work. He lived with the Zapotecs of Southern Mexico, participated in the excavation of the Great Temple of Petra in Jordan, and was leader of a team that discovered the lost city of Ubar in the Sultantate of Oman.