Rainforest Shamans

Download Rainforest Shamans PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Green Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rainforest Shamans by : Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff

Download or read book Rainforest Shamans written by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff and published by Green Books. This book was released on 1997 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropologist Reichel-Dolmatoff spent most of his working life among tribes living in the vast rainforests of the Colombian Northwest Amazon. This collection of essays considers the Tukano Indians and their society. Many of the essays are concerned with the role of shamanism in Tukanoan society, including initiation practices and their curing spells, which show the Tukanoan concepts of illness and its cure. Other essays describe their concepts of universal energies and the ways they can be balanced, and the ecological dimensions of their world-view.

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

Download Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 014012991X
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice by : Mark J. Plotkin

Download or read book Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice written by Mark J. Plotkin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1994-08-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating account of a pioneering ethnobotanist’s travels in the Amazon—at once a gripping adventure story, a passionate argument for conservationism, and an investigation into the healing power of plants, by the author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know For thousands of years, healers have used plants to cure illness. Aspirin, the world's most widely used drug, is based on compounds originally extracted from the bark of a willow tree, and more than a quarter of medicines found on pharmacy shelves contain plant compounds. Now Western medicine, faced with health crises such as AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer, has begun to look to the healing plants used by indigenous peoples to develop powerful new medicines. Nowhere is the search more promising than in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical forest, home to a quarter of all botanical species on this planet—as well as hundreds of Indian tribes whose medicinal plants have never been studied by Western scientists. In Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin recounts his travels and studies with some of the most powerful Amazonian shamans, who taught him the plant lore their tribes have spent thousands of years gleaning from the rain forest. For more than a decade, Dr. Plotkin raced against time to harvest and record new plants before the rain forests' fragile ecosystems succumb to overdevelopment—and before the Indians abandon their own culture and learning for the seductive appeal of Western material culture. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice relates nine of the author's quests, taking the reader along on a wild odyssey as he participates in healing rituals; discovers the secret of curare, the lethal arrow poison that kills in minutes; tries the hallucinogenic snuff epena that enables the Indians to speak with their spirit world; and earns the respect and fellowship of the mysterious shamans as he proves that he shares both their endurance and their reverence for the rain forest.

Spirit of the Rainforest

Download Spirit of the Rainforest PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spirit of the Rainforest by : Mark A. Ritchie

Download or read book Spirit of the Rainforest written by Mark A. Ritchie and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Yanamamo of the Amazon -- endangered children of nature or indigenous warmongers on the verge of destroying themselves? Now for the first time, a powerful Yanomamo shaman speaks for his people. Jungleman provides shocking, never-before-answered accounts of life-or-death battles among his people -- and perhaps even more disturbing among the spirits who fight for their souls. Brutally riveting, the story of Jungleman is an extraordinary and powerful document.

The Shaman's Apprentice

Download The Shaman's Apprentice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 054754491X
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (475 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Shaman's Apprentice by : Mark J. Plotkin

Download or read book The Shaman's Apprentice written by Mark J. Plotkin and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 1998-04-01 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a Tirio village deep in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, the shaman Nahtahlah has a place of honor in his tribe. Young Kamanya wants to learn the healing secrets of the forest plants--he hopes that he, too, will become the tribe’s shaman, so that he can cure his people. When the villagers fall sick with an illness that Nahtahlah cannot cure, many lose faith in the shaman’s wisdom--until a foreign woman helps them understand its value while giving Kamanya an opportunity to realize his dream. Lynne Cherry returns to the rain forest with ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin to tell an important story about the healing plants of the earth-and why we must protect them.

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

Download Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 014012991X
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice by : Mark J. Plotkin

Download or read book Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice written by Mark J. Plotkin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1994-08-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating account of a pioneering ethnobotanist’s travels in the Amazon—at once a gripping adventure story, a passionate argument for conservationism, and an investigation into the healing power of plants, by the author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know For thousands of years, healers have used plants to cure illness. Aspirin, the world's most widely used drug, is based on compounds originally extracted from the bark of a willow tree, and more than a quarter of medicines found on pharmacy shelves contain plant compounds. Now Western medicine, faced with health crises such as AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer, has begun to look to the healing plants used by indigenous peoples to develop powerful new medicines. Nowhere is the search more promising than in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical forest, home to a quarter of all botanical species on this planet—as well as hundreds of Indian tribes whose medicinal plants have never been studied by Western scientists. In Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin recounts his travels and studies with some of the most powerful Amazonian shamans, who taught him the plant lore their tribes have spent thousands of years gleaning from the rain forest. For more than a decade, Dr. Plotkin raced against time to harvest and record new plants before the rain forests' fragile ecosystems succumb to overdevelopment—and before the Indians abandon their own culture and learning for the seductive appeal of Western material culture. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice relates nine of the author's quests, taking the reader along on a wild odyssey as he participates in healing rituals; discovers the secret of curare, the lethal arrow poison that kills in minutes; tries the hallucinogenic snuff epena that enables the Indians to speak with their spirit world; and earns the respect and fellowship of the mysterious shamans as he proves that he shares both their endurance and their reverence for the rain forest.

The Falling Sky

Download The Falling Sky PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674293576
Total Pages : 649 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Falling Sky by : Davi Kopenawa

Download or read book The Falling Sky written by Davi Kopenawa and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 10th anniversary edition A Guardian Best Book about Deforestation A New Scientist Best Book of the Year A Taipei Times Best Book of the Year “A perfectly grounded account of what it is like to live an indigenous life in communion with one’s personal spirits. We are losing worlds upon worlds.” —Louise Erdrich, New York Times Book Review “The Yanomami of the Amazon, like all the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australia, have experienced the end of what was once their world. Yet they have survived and somehow succeeded in making sense of a wounded existence. They have a lot to teach us.” —Amitav Ghosh, The Guardian “A literary treasure...a must for anyone who wants to understand more of the diverse beauty and wonder of existence.” —New Scientist A now classic account of the life and thought of Davi Kopenawa, shaman and spokesman for the Yanomami, The Falling Sky paints an unforgettable picture of an indigenous culture living in harmony with the Amazon forest and its creatures, and its devastating encounter with the global mining industry. In richly evocative language, Kopenawa recounts his initiation as a shaman and first experience of outsiders: missionaries, cattle ranchers, government officials, and gold prospectors seeking to extract the riches of the Amazon. A coming-of-age story entwined with a rare first-person articulation of shamanic philosophy, this impassioned plea to respect indigenous peoples’ rights is a powerful rebuke to the accelerating depredation of the Amazon and other natural treasures threatened by climate change and development.

Rainforest Shamans

Download Rainforest Shamans PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Green Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rainforest Shamans by : Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff

Download or read book Rainforest Shamans written by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff and published by Green Books. This book was released on 1997 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropologist Reichel-Dolmatoff spent most of his working life among tribes living in the vast rainforests of the Colombian Northwest Amazon. This collection of essays considers the Tukano Indians and their society. Many of the essays are concerned with the role of shamanism in Tukanoan society, including initiation practices and their curing spells, which show the Tukanoan concepts of illness and its cure. Other essays describe their concepts of universal energies and the ways they can be balanced, and the ecological dimensions of their world-view.

Animism in Rainforest and Tundra

Download Animism in Rainforest and Tundra PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 0857454692
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (574 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Animism in Rainforest and Tundra by : Marc Brightman

Download or read book Animism in Rainforest and Tundra written by Marc Brightman and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amazonia and Siberia, classic regions of shamanism, have long challenged ‘western’ understandings of man’s place in the world. By exploring the social relations between humans and non-human entities credited with human-like personhood (not only animals and plants, but also ‘things’ such as artifacts, trade items, or mineral resources) from a comparative perspective, this volume offers valuable insights into the constitutions of humanity and personhood characteristic of the two areas. The contributors conducted their ethnographic fieldwork among peoples undergoing transformative processes of their lived environments, such as the depletion of natural resources and migration to urban centers. They describe here fundamental relational modes that are being tested in the face of change, presenting groundbreaking research on personhood and agency in shamanic societies and contributing to our global understanding of social and cultural change and continuity.

Rainforest Medicine

Download Rainforest Medicine PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : North Atlantic Books
ISBN 13 : 1583946233
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (839 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rainforest Medicine by : Jonathon Miller Weisberger

Download or read book Rainforest Medicine written by Jonathon Miller Weisberger and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicling the practices, legends, and wisdom of the vanishing traditions of the upper Amazon, this book reveals the area's indigenous peoples' approach to living in harmony with the natural world. Rainforest Medicine features in-depth essays on plant-based medicine and indigenous science from four distinct Amazonian societies: deep forest and urban, lowland rainforest and mountain. The book is illustrated with unique botanical and cultural drawings by Secoya elder and traditional healer Agustin Payaguaje and horticulturalist Thomas Y. Wang as well as by the author himself. Payaguaje shares his sincere imaginal view into the spiritual life of the Secoya; plates of petroglyphs from the sacred valley of Cotundo relate to an ancient language, and other illustrations show traditional Secoya ayahuasca symbols and indigenous origin myths. Two color sections showcase photos of the plants and people of the region, and include plates of previously unpublished full-color paintings by Pablo Cesar Amaringo (1938-2009), an acclaimed Peruvian artist renowned for his intricate, colorful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogenic plant brew, ayahuasca ("vine of the soul" in Quechua languages). Today the once-dense mysterious rainforest realms are under assault as the indiscriminate colonial frontier of resource extraction moves across the region; as the forest disappears, the traditional human legacy of sustainable utilization of this rich ecosystem is also being buried under modern realities. With over 20 years experience of ground-level environmental and cultural conservation, author Jonathon Miller Weisberger's commitment to preserving the fascinating, unfathomably precious relics of the indigenous legacy shines through. Chief among these treasures is the "shimmering" "golden" plant-medicine science of ayahuasca or yajé, a rainforest vine that was popularized in the 1950s by Western travelers such as William Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg. It has been sampled, reviled, and celebrated by outsiders ever since. Currently sought after by many in the industrialized West for its powerful psychotropic and life-transforming effects, this sacred brew is often imbibed by visitors to the upper Amazon and curious seekers in faraway venues, sometimes with little to no working knowledge of its principles and precepts. Perceiving that there is an evident need for in-depth information on ayahuasca if it is to be used beyond its traditional context for healing and spiritual illumination in the future, Miller Weisberger focuses on the fundamental knowledge and practices that guide the use of ayahuasca in indigenous cultures. Weaving first-person narrative with anthropological and ethnobotanical information, Rainforest Medicine aims to preserve both the record and ongoing reality of ayahuasca's unique tradition and, of course, the priceless forest that gave birth to these sacred vines. Featuring words from Amazonian shamans--the living torchbearers of these sophisticated spiritual practices--the book stands as testimony to this sacred plant medicine's power in shaping and healing individuals, communities, and nature alike.

The Secrets of the Amazon Shamans

Download The Secrets of the Amazon Shamans PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Crossroad Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Secrets of the Amazon Shamans by : Michael Peter Langevin

Download or read book The Secrets of the Amazon Shamans written by Michael Peter Langevin and published by Crossroad Press. This book was released on 2016-01-04 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings a timely breath of fresh air into the labyrinth of material now available on shamanism involving the Amazon River Basin. The Second Edition of Amazon Shamans: Healing traditions from South America (first published in 2003), catches a moment in time when the ancient knowledge of the Amazon shamans was already changing rapidly. Through Michael Peter Langevin's journey together with his family, we get to take part of this fascinating region, and it's inherent ancient mysteries and miracles. Michael Peter Langevin has been on the shamanic path since 1973, and traveled extensively in Latin America. Over the years he has met and studied with many shamans in the Amazon River Basin and the Andean Mountain region. In this down-to-earth book he intersperses his own and his family’s journeys through the many countries surrounding the Amazon River Basin, inviting the reader to feel part of adventurous meetings with shamans, whose knowledge and wisdom stretches the mind to what is possible. Meetings that are often humorously conveyed, but there are also serious encounters when the peaceful life of remote villages clashes with modern life. Michael tells what it is like to see life from the eyes of someone else in a healing ceremony; about a Calling the Dead Ritual where he could actually see their spirits with his physical eyes; what it is like to experience the intensity of Ayahuasca ritual, and having your life revisited; but also about the strain of traveling with your children being far away from so-called civilization when they fall ill. The story of this book moves between Michael's shamanic initiations, and his joys and challenges of traveling as a family, coming together in the fearful situation of his sick children, which turns into a miraculous healing. This book is an exiting inroad to the mysteries of the Amazon shaman way, based on real life meetings and experiences. The Amazon shamans and healers hold libraries of knowledge that has been built through thousands of years of experimentation. Michael has an uncanny ability to translate the mysterious knowledge of Amazon shamanism into magical everyday practice, that is understandable and approachable. Throughout the book we are presented with basic Amazon shaman principles, procedures and rituals, adapted to work in any setting. These principles, procedures and rituals can be used to enhance the richness of life, to heal and even to question basic assumptions on how the world is connected and what is possible. In the words of Michael, “An invisible web of life connects everything in existence. Westerners often loose sight of this, but in the Amazon it's easy to remember, because it's presence is so visceral. Amazon shamans know that while reason is a useful tool, intuition and magic surpass it in most every way.” The journal-like, warm, free-flowing writing style adds to the intimacy and charm of this book. Michael is a convincing proponent of the Amazon way of spirituality and mysticism. He conveys a sense of urgency to change our direction in life and become more connected to nature, and to each other. In the concluding chapter of The Amazon Shamans: Healing traditions from South America he writes, “You must begin to speak with the plants, the wind and the stars. Only in these ways will you fully understand and appreciate your own inherent healing abilities as a natural part of the world.” As a handbook for Amazon shamanic healing and rituals, this volume is packed with powerful knowledge and practical techniques.

Weather Shamanism

Download Weather Shamanism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1591439213
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (914 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Weather Shamanism by : Nan Moss

Download or read book Weather Shamanism written by Nan Moss and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-01-24 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating an alliance and working partnership with the spirits of weather to restore well-being and harmony to Earth and ourselves • Reveals that, intentionally or not, we affect the weather not only through our actions but also through our thoughts and emotions • Explains shamanic techniques for working with the spiritual nature of weather • Special section on “weather dancing” details both its ceremonial and therapeutic aspects With the growing consensus that global warming is a fact comes the realization that the increasingly violent weather we are experiencing is its chief manifestation. Each storm, each flood, each blizzard seems to break 100-year-old records for both intensity and damage. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases may be too little, too late. Through a unique blend of anthropological research, shamanic journeys, and personal stories and anecdotes, Moss and Corbin show how humans and weather have always affected each other, and how it is possible to influence the weather. They present teachings directly from the spirits of weather that show how our thoughts and emotions affect weather energetics. They also reveal the ceremonial and therapeutic aspects of “weather dancing,” a practice used to communicate with the weather spirits. Weather Shamanism is about transformation--of ourselves, and thus our world. It is about how we can develop an expanded worldview that honors spiritual realities in order to create a working partnership with the spirits of weather and thereby help to restore well-being and harmony to Earth.

Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon

Download Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 0803246811
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (32 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon by : Robin M. Wright

Download or read book Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon written by Robin M. Wright and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon tells the life story of Mandu da Silva, the last living jaguar shaman among the Baniwa people in the northwest Amazon. In this original and engaging work, Robin M. Wright, who has known and worked with da Silva for more than thirty years, weaves the story of da Silva’s life together with the Baniwas’ society, history, mythology, cosmology, and jaguar shaman traditions. The jaguar shamans are key players in what Wright calls “a nexus of religious power and knowledge” in which healers, sorcerers, priestly chanters, and dance-leaders exercise complementary functions that link living specialists with the deities and great spirits of the cosmos. By exploring in depth the apprenticeship of the shaman, Wright shows how jaguar shamans acquire the knowledge and power of the deities in several stages of instruction and practice. This volume is the first mapping of the sacred geography (“mythscape”) of the Northern Arawak–speaking people of the northwest Amazon, demonstrating direct connections between petroglyphs and other inscriptions and Baniwa sacred narratives as a whole. In eloquent and inviting analytic prose, Wright links biographic and ethnographic elements in elevating anthropological writing to a new standard of theoretically aware storytelling and analytic power.

The Shaman's Apprentice

Download The Shaman's Apprentice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 9780152024864
Total Pages : 36 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Shaman's Apprentice by : Lynne Cherry

Download or read book The Shaman's Apprentice written by Lynne Cherry and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2001 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kamanya believes in the shaman's wisdom about the healing properties of plants found in the Amazon rain forest and hopes one day to be a healer for his people.

Spirit of the Rainforest, 3rd Edition: A Yanomam Shaman's Story

Download Spirit of the Rainforest, 3rd Edition: A Yanomam Shaman's Story PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Island Lake Press
ISBN 13 : 9780964695290
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (952 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spirit of the Rainforest, 3rd Edition: A Yanomam Shaman's Story by : Mark Andrew Ritchie

Download or read book Spirit of the Rainforest, 3rd Edition: A Yanomam Shaman's Story written by Mark Andrew Ritchie and published by Island Lake Press. This book was released on 2018-08-21 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First person account of life in the Yanomami section of Amazonas

Plant Spirit Shamanism

Download Plant Spirit Shamanism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1594776660
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Plant Spirit Shamanism by : Ross Heaven

Download or read book Plant Spirit Shamanism written by Ross Heaven and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-08-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth look at the role of plant spirits in shamanic rituals from around the world • Shows how shamans heal using their knowledge of plant spirits as well as the plant’s “medical properties” • Explores the core methods of plant shamanism--soul retrieval, spirit extraction, and sin eating--and includes techniques for connecting with plant spirits • Includes extensive field interviews with master shamans of all traditions In Plant Spirit Shamanism, Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing explore the use of one of the major allies of shamans for healing, seeing, dreaming, and empowerment--plant spirits. After observing great similarities in the use of plants among shamans throughout the world, they discovered the reason behind these similarities: Rather than dealing with the “medical properties” of the plants or specific healing techniques, shamans commune with the spirits of the plants themselves. From their years of in-depth shamanic work in the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, including extensive field interviews with master shamans, Heaven and Charing present the core methods of plant shamanism used in healing rituals the world over: soul retrieval, spirit extraction, sin eating, and the Amazonian tradition of pusanga (love medicine). They explain the techniques shamans use to establish connections to plant spirits and provide practical exercises as well as a directory of traditional Amazonian and Caribbean healing plants and their common North American equivalents so readers can ex-plore the world of plant spirits and make allies of their own.

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

Download Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (21 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice by : Mark J. Plotkin

Download or read book Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice written by Mark J. Plotkin and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Ethnobotany of Eden

Download The Ethnobotany of Eden PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022654785X
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Ethnobotany of Eden by : Robert A. Voeks

Download or read book The Ethnobotany of Eden written by Robert A. Voeks and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mysterious and pristine forests of the tropics, a wealth of ethnobotanical panaceas and shamanic knowledge promises cures for everything from cancer and AIDS to the common cold. To access such miracles, we need only to discover and protect these medicinal treasures before they succumb to the corrosive forces of the modern world. A compelling biocultural story, certainly, and a popular perspective on the lands and peoples of equatorial latitudes—but true? Only in part. In The Ethnobotany of Eden, geographer Robert A. Voeks unravels the long lianas of history and occasional strands of truth that gave rise to this irresistible jungle medicine narrative. By exploring the interconnected worlds of anthropology, botany, and geography, Voeks shows that well-intentioned scientists and environmentalists originally crafted the jungle narrative with the primary goal of saving the world’s tropical rainforests from destruction. It was a strategy deployed to address a pressing environmental problem, one that appeared at a propitious point in history just as the Western world was taking a more globalized view of environmental issues. And yet, although supported by science and its practitioners, the story was also underpinned by a persuasive mix of myth, sentimentality, and nostalgia for a long-lost tropical Eden. Resurrecting the fascinating history of plant prospecting in the tropics, from the colonial era to the present day, The Ethnobotany of Eden rewrites with modern science the degradation narrative we’ve built up around tropical forests, revealing the entangled origins of our fables of forest cures.