Ancient Wisdom

Among the Akan peoples of West Africa, the process of selecting an Omanhene—a paramount chief—included a practice that baffles modern executive search committees: the council of elders actively sought candidates who had experienced significant...

In 218 BCE, as Hannibal prepared his legendary Alpine crossing, Carthaginian merchants in Massalia faced an unusual problem. Their contracts with Roman suppliers had collapsed, yet they needed to provision an army crossing unpredictable terrain...

In the ancient port of Tyre, around 1200 BCE, murex snails littered the harbor shores—evidence of the city's most guarded industry. Ten thousand shells produced barely a gram of purple dye, yet Phoenician merchants openly shared shipping...

In 1880s Mandalay, before a monk could undertake weikza training—the rigorous Burmese path toward preserving wisdom across lifetimes—he first created what translators awkwardly call a "temporal architecture." This wasn't a goal...

In traditional Samoan villages, the fono—a council of matai (titled chiefs)—gathers beneath the thatched roof of the fale tele to make decisions. But here's what confuses Western observers: by the time everyone sits down in their designated...

In 11th-century Tibet, Atisha Dipankara brought from India a radical teaching that would transform how Kadampa monks approached every interaction. Among the 59 mind-training slogans he compiled, one stands out for its counterintuitive instruction:...

When a Tlingit leader in 19th-century Southeast Alaska spent decades accumulating copper shields, seal oil, and woven blankets—only to give everything away in a single ceremonial feast—European observers dismissed it as primitive economics. They...

In 1291, Venice's Grand Council issued a decree forcing all glassmakers to relocate to the island of Murano. But the most fascinating rule wasn't about location—it was about timing. Master glassblowers of Murano developed a practice...

In the Chandogya Upanishma, composed around 800 BCE in the Gangetic plains, the sage Sanatkumara teaches Narada a peculiar practice: before answering any complex question, hold the breath. Not to calm down or center oneself, but because "the...

In the highland monasteries of Ethiopia's Tigray region, there exists a contemplative practice so counterintuitive that it reverses everything we think we know about expertise. The dabtara—scholar-scribes who preserved Ge'ez manuscripts...