Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest [L0097]

1994 - HCDJ Excellent condition. An investigation into the healing power of plants, by the author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know. Adventure, anthropology, and science converge in one man's quest among the rain forest shamans for ancient medicines that may hold the cure to today's devastating diseases. 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. 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. Vividly clarifies what destruction of the region's plant species may ultimately cost humanity.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "As a historian, I greatly appreciated his vignettes into the origins of coffee, rubber and other life changing substances. Mark is a great story teller, and he is one of the luckiest men alive to have seen pristine rainforests and lived with these 20,000+ year old cultures. But the book isn't depressing. It is empowering. Knowledge, not ignorance, is power."; "Plotkin has written a lovely book here about the Northwest Amazon (Venezuela, Guyana, Surname, French Guyana, and Brazil); the least disturbed part of the great forest. Just like the field of ethnobotany, this book is interdisciplinary: anthropology, botany, medicine, linguistics, geography, ecology, and history are all featured. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice is a rare book that will not only teach you a great deal but thrill you along the way. Bravo!"; "Plotkin does an amazing job in not only describing his experience in the Amazonian forest but in also describing the many medicinal plants that were used by the native people. The story, as one would think, would seem bland and dry but Plotkin does a wonderful job in keeping his narration flowing and interesting. I particularly liked the descriptions of what was happening to him such as epena or the flea egg under his toe nail and the electric eel encounters when he was swimming in the river. A well written book by someone who knows his field very well. I would definitely recommend."