Multimedia Lectures, Seminars, Workshops and Study Trips
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Exploring the Cultural Ideals, Arts and Sustaining Ways of Living of Ancient and Indigenous World Cultures
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And Their Vital Lessons for Living in Today's World
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HISTORY AND MISSION
The
Ancient Ways Project is a series of public educational and personal
development programs, founded in 1982 and facilitated by anthropologist
and author Peter Gold. They include an extensive repertoire of
multimedia talks, workshops and experiential seminars, which express
the essential oneness of humanity by exploring our perennial wisdom
ways for living harmoniously in the world and within ourselves.
For
over three decades, the Ancient Ways Project has communicated to a wide
audience, the interconnectedness and wisdom of humanity’s cultures,
their inextricable relationship to the sentience and phenomena of our
planet, and their understanding that spiritual and daily life must be
fundamentally one.
The Ancient Ways Project is dedicated to
serving as a bridge between the perennial philosophy of living, which
still informs indigenous and spiritually-minded, non-Western cultures,
and our own ways of knowing and living. As humanity expands
exponentially in numbers while decreasing, sadly, in awareness of the
wonders and responsibilities of living, work such as that of the
Ancient Ways Project is both timely and essential.
Current Programs
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PETER GOLD is an anthropologist,
artist, musician and educator who has traveled widely on three
continents, studying the cultures, philosophies, arts and ways of life
of Tibetans in Tibet, India and Nepal; Alaskan Eskimos; Native peoples
of the U.S. Southwest and Mexico; African-Americans in the U.S. and
Caribbean; the Balinese; and Georgians in the Caucasus and Turkey. He
was research assistant to Dr. Margaret Mead at the American Museum of
Natural History, and served as a curator at various cultural museums.
He has authored numerous books and articles including the widely
praised: Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: The Circle of the Spirit.
Peter Gold is a Research
Associate at the Museum of New Mexico's Laboratory of Anthropology and
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe.
"For
over three decades, I have been presenting the perennial philosophies,
arts and practical ways of living of the world's ancient and indigenous
cultures, through a series of multimedia lectures, seminars,
workshops and study trips. They are based on living extensively amid these vital cultures, which has opened
my eyes to the infinite possibilities of the human spirit. I believe
that by exploring the vast panorama of the world's cultural ways, we are enabled take a major step toward
intercultural understanding, self-awareness and peace."
Online Interview
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ANNOUNCING A NEW MULTIMEDIA INITIATIVE:
AND WE'LL ALL GO TOGETHER: Expressing the Indigenous Legacy in Humane Living
Twelve
years ago, I became inspired to compose a song describing the legacy to
humane living that is still – just - surviving among indigenous peoples
on each inhabited continent. I wanted to sing about how we and Native
peoples are “all in this world together” and, of necessity, are all
responsible for it and one another. After years of letting it
slowly reveal itself, the song has now fully taken form. Recently, I
recorded it in three part harmony, bearing the title: And We’ll All Go Together. Its lyrics are inspired by and are set to Robbie Burns' classic song, Will Ye Go, Lassie Go? - and done in an upbeat tempo full of feeling and meaning.
Recently,
I've finished adding to the song various, “panned and zoomed”
photo images, along with earth rotation movies from NASA. In its
present state, And We’ll All Go Together is a low resolution,
audiovisual “sketch” of several segments of the final piece, which will result
from a planned “audiovideo walkabout” to representative indigenous
peoples on each continent. These include: Native Americans, Tibetans,
Saami-Lapplanders, Australian Aborigines, the Balinese and South
African Bushmen.
What must now come to pass in the evolution of
the final work, is to shoot on-location, high definition digital video
clips, to replace most of the sample images contained in the
demonstration version, which can be seen in the link on this webpage. At
the same time, digital still photographs will be taken and digital
sound will be recorded for the soundtrack’s final “mix.”
To
finalize the video, grant funding and private donations must now be
secured in order to go on an approximately four month-long “audiovideo
walkabout” to the peoples and continents treated in the program. You
are invited to view this short but sweet version of the program. Your
support in realization of the project is deeply appreciated.
To watch the video and for further information, please click on the links to the right.
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Click Here to View Video
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| Click Here for Project Overview |
| Click Here for Song Notation & Full Lyrics |
α ANNOUNCING THE BLOG: HUMANE BEING Ω
In February 2007, Peter Gold launched the blogpost, Humane Being.
The blog's essays comment upon the human condition from the point of view of a humanistic anthropologist, and serve as a vehicle for proposing humane solutions to the uncertain condition of being human.
Humane Being is being constantly updated with new essays and explorations, so please visit often, at:
http://humanebeing.blogspot.com
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Circle of the Spirit: Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom
The similarity between the Navajo and Tibetan spiritual traditions has often been remarked upon by scholars chiefly because of the mandala sandpaintings common to both cultures, their ideas about matter and spirit, and their uncanny physical resemblance to one another. Author Peter Gold substantiates the shared knowledge of these seemingly disparate peoples by drawing extensive parallels among many aspects of both cultures, including: creation myths, cosmology, sacred geography, psychology, visionary arts, and healing and initiation rituals. Through his sensitive comparison of Navajo and Tibetan sacred ways, the author encourages us to reconsider our own cultural paradigms and shows us how we might begin to recover a sense of the sacred in contemporary life.
(Author Autographed Copies: $49.95 plus S&H: $6./USA)
Book Orders
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WHAT HAS BEEN SAID
"Peter Gold describes and compares many aspects of Navajo and Tibetan Buddhist practice, highlighting the humanitarian principles on which they are based, reflecting the fundamental goodness of the human heart." - The Dalai Lama
"A bold and exciting exploration, showing many astonishing parallels between these precious and imperiled traditions, from which our own world-weary western culture has so much to learn." - Peter Matthiessen
"Your descriptions are deeply moving and will teach even the un-initiated the beauty and spiritual achievements of Tibetan Buddhism. You have seen this through the eyes of a poet and the heart of a lover." - Lama Anagarika Govinda
"At long last the mighty indigenous traditions of Navajo and Tibetan are juxtaposed, to let their powerful teachings reinforce each other and resound together. Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: a beautiful and wise book." - Joanna Macy
Foreword by the Dalai Lama
Book Reviews
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| TIBET: An Odyssey in Sound
Welcome to an aural pilgrimage into the land, life and spirit of Tibet. This is a montage of Tibetan sacred chants, tantric and archaic rituals, folksongs and dances, and aural environments, recorded in Tibetan communities throughout India, Nepal and Tibet itself. They are woven together with pilgrimage narratives written by Peter Gold and excerpted from his three books of essays, poetics and photographs on Tibet: Tibetan Reflections, Altar of the Earth and Tibetan Pilgrimage. This "soundscape" was initially produced for Radio Australia on the occasion of the Dalai Lama's first visit "down under."
CD with descriptive insert: $16.95 plus $1.50 S&H
Download overview and contents
CD orders
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RECORDINGS, PERFORMANCES AND WORKSHOPS
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| (click on above CD image to listen to sample songs) |
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| (click on above CD image to listen to sample songs) |
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My connection with music began during the folk music revival of the 1960’s. The wonderfully limitless songs of the world’s peoples inspired me to arrange, compose and perform my own compositions, accompanied by modern and traditional instruments. Over the past 40 years I have lived with and studied the musics and instruments of Native North and Central Americans, Tibetans, Georgians in the Caucasus and in Turkey, and African Americans in the Caribbean and the US.
Together with salon concerts, I’ve also been offering “Sacred Hootennany” sing-alongs and more extensive “Spirit of Song” workshops. They are built upon songs, chants and instrumentals - some totally traditional and others in “world fusion” style - accompanied by western and traditional instruments. I am vitalized and inspired by the profound beauty of these timeless chants and songs.
Recently, two retrospective CD’s of my songs have been released, entitled: Golden Road and Anima Mundi.
On a personal note, I feel fated to have followed the path of song. I am a kapelmeister twice over. “Kapelmeister” is the German word for “chapel master,” one who leads singers and instrumentalists in the sounding of music, chant and song. Johann Sebastian Bach was, for example, the most illustrious of European kapelmeisters. And, Kapelmeister holds another, more particularly intimate meaning for me. It is my mother’s family name. I have reason to believe that several centuries ago, when people took names based on their professions, I had an ancestor who indeed had been such a musicmaster. It makes me happy to think that I am following in my family kapelmeister’s footsteps along the golden road of song.
To Order CDs
Hear Peter on Internet Radio
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