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"The River of Life"
and other programs for learning and celebrating
the evolutionary journey of life and our own ancestry
written and assembled by Connie Barlow (2009) based on Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins (2004)
www.TheGreatStory.org/ancestors-tale.html |
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Two different experiential scripts have been assembled, based on the 2004 science book by Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale. Dawkins characterizes his book as "an epic pilgrimage from the present to the past", and he suggests that in this journey "We shall be pilgrims, then, sharing fellowship ever more inclusively with other pilgrim bands, which also have been swelling on their own way to their rendezvous with us."
1-minute VIDEO PREVIEW of the book by the author, Richard Dawkins.
Amazingly, it takes ONLY 40 such rendezvous for humans to meet chimpanzees, other apes, monkeys, other primates, other placental mammals, and so on back through the entire journey of life. Both versions of the group experience below have this 40-part structure, and can easily be adapted for groups ranging from 12 to 80 participants, and for virtually all age groups and mixed age groups.
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&diams 1. "The River of Life: An Evolutionary Journey" - This is the easiest and most child-friendly of the activities. Imagine every species alive on Earth today designating a single ambassador to journey back through time, following their evolutionary lineage. Group by group, the lineages of the ambassadors begin to merge, as they come upon shared ancestors. We can take this journey together by beginning as the human ambassador, who encounters other lineages merging on the same journey back in time. We can picture this journey as drops of water flowing down a watershed, becoming rivulets, then streams, then bigger and bigger tributaries, as they all eventually come together in The River of Life.
This is the only version suitable for children and for families, but it is also delightful for adults. It is the only version that has been developed with a strong visual emphasis (digital slide show) and with a song.
To download below: right-click (PC) or control+click (Mac)
DOWNLOAD "Guidelines for Teachers/Group Leaders" in
PDF (212 kb)
LISTEN ONLINE or DOWNLOAD "7-part AUDIO Instructions for Teachers/Group Leaders":
Part 1 (4 mins);
Part 2 (9 mins);
Part 3 (11 mins);
Part 4 (16 mins);
Part 5 (18 mins);
Part 6 (12 mins);
Part 7 (18 mins)
DOWNLOAD "River of Life" DIGITAL SLIDE SHOW in
Powerpoint (PC) (13.7 MB) or Keynote (Mac) (11.5 MB)
DOWNLOAD "River of Life" PARTICIPANT Scripts (40 total) in PDF (15.5 MB)
Note: You cannot view this onscreen; only DOWNLOAD. Be patient; it will take a long time to download.
DOWNLOAD "River of Life" LEADER Scripts (40 total) in PDF (41.4 MB)
Note: You cannot view this onscreen; only DOWNLOAD. Be patient; it will take a long time to download.
DOWNLOAD "River of Life" SONG SLIDES in
Powerpoint (PC) (484 kb) or Keynote (Mac) (980 kb)
DOWNLOAD "River of Life" SONG lyrics (23 verses) in PDF (88 kb)
LISTEN ONLINE to "River of Life" SONG MELODY in AUDIO mp3 or right-click to download (2.1 MB)
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♦ 2. "Greet the Concestors" - In this version, the focus shifts from our fellow ambassadors (species alive today) to what the shared ancestor ("concestor") looked like whenever we merge with another stream of pilgrims taking their own journey back through time. We also focus on what body parts our lineage of life gains or loses at each of the 40 "rendezvous points." This is a very simple script with no visual component and no song. It is not intended for children. But it is excellent supplemental information for the teacher/leader to study in preparation for guiding "The River of Life" journey above, or for offering as a special project to a scientifically gifted student. You can download the simple program/scripts in PDF (420 kb)
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3. "Ancestors Meditation" - This reading (created to accompany a Samhain autumn ritual) by Jon Cleland-Host, is not derived from the science in Richard Dawkins's book. It is a much faster way to survey the flow of ancestral life forms and situations without focussing on the 40 points of confluence. Click here to view or download in PDF.
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4. "River of Life BEADS" - A fabulous supplement to this experience, especially in a school setting, is to use the 40 confluence points as the basis for making GREAT STORY BEADS. For this purpose, the teacher would provide, in addition to colorful beads, alphabet beads, so that kids could choose the bead "C" for the confluence with chimpanzees, "G" for gorilla, and so on, if actual beads of those animals are not available. To learn about great story beads in general, click HERE.
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The 40 Confluences/Concestors: (1) chimpanzees; (2) gorilla; (3) orang utan; (4) gibbons; (5) Old World monkeys; (6) New World monkeys; (7) tarsiers; (8) lemurs; (9) tree shrews; (10) rodents & rabbits; (11) Laurasiathere mammals; (12) Xenarthran mammals; (13) Afrothere mammals; (14) Marsupial mammals; (15) Monotreme mammals; (16) reptiles & birds; (17) amphibian; (18) lungfish; (19) coelacanth; (20) ray-finned fishes; (21) sharks; (22) lampreys & hagfish; (23) lancelets; (24) sea squirts; (25) starfish; (26) mollusks, worms, crustaceans, insects & spiders; (27) primitive flatworms; (28) jellyfish; (29) comb jellies; (30) placozoans; (31) sponges; (32) single-cell eukaryotes; (33) drips; (34) fungus; (35) amoebozoan; (36) plants & algae; (37) Giardia, diatoms, forams, & brown algae; (38) Archaea; (39) Eubacteria; (40) Origin of Life
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REQUESTS: (1) If you use this curriculum, please contact the author and let her know what elements worked well and where improvements should be made. (2) If this curriculum has made a difference with your students, please ask your organization to make a donation. |
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