Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest |  | Author: Mark J. Plotkin
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
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Rating:  51 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 328
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Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 014012991X
Dewey Decimal Number: 581.6
EAN: 9780140129915
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Amazon.com Review
A century ago, malaria was killing Washingtonians, Londoners, Parisians. Today HIV, along with various cancers, has taken its place among worldwide epidemics. Quinine, extracted from the cinchona tree of the Amazonian rainforest, quelled malaria; alkaloids taken from trees in the West African rainforest may well yield a cure for AIDS. Yet those woods, Mark Plotkin tells us, are fast disappearing, along with the native peoples who know the powers of the plants that dwell there. His account of wandering through the Amazonian jungles focuses on local knowledge about plants, whose uses range from the mundane to the magical. The rainforests of the world, Plotkin notes, are our greatest natural resource, an intercultural pharmacy that can cure woes both known and yet unvisited.
Product Description
Western medicine is only just beginning to value the curative powers of plants and herbs found in the Amazon rain forests. The story of ethnobotanist Mark Plotkins's apprenticeship with shaman wise men of the area is truly an anthropological adventure, that also vividly clarifies what destruction of the rain forests may ultimately cost humanity.Photos. Author lecture tour.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 51
 Funeral Dirge June 2, 2005
JOHN J. MCGRAW (Solana Beach, CA USA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
If you're a student of ethnobotany, you've come across the works and influence of Richard Evans Schultes who not only got the discipline on the charts but also spawned all of its major researchers. Plotkin, like many of the other ethnobotanists out there, never imagined going into this area but after attending a lecture by Schultes was forever hooked. And who wouldn't be? There are few tracks of study that harken back to the great era of discovery when large swaths of maps were inscribed "TERRA INCOGNITA" and strange tales of lost tribes, hidden ruins, and secret rituals abounded. In short, ethnobotany is a calling card for the last terrestrial adventure. Reading any of its texts one gets to take part in this adventure vicariously.
Like "One River" (Wade Davis), Plotkin's "Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice" takes us to the most remote areas of the Amazon and allows us to sample the last vestiges of traditional cultures where, in the words of Plotkin, the arrival of Columbus in 1492 is just being felt. It's taken 500 years for European civilization to finally penetrate the canopy of the deep rainforest but the Conquest is now nearly complete and the very last of the holdouts are starting to wear ratty jeans and tossed off t-shirts, sing cheesy Bible hymns, and guzzle down Coca-Cola. For all the adventure and good writing, a long sad tune is heard as one reads this book; a threnody to bemoan the last gasp of wise-old cultures as their vision goes dark. And with each of these cultures is lost all the knowledge of plants that they have come to know so well. But, in truth, the loss of this knowledge is not so important since the plants themselves are disappearing into oblivion even faster. As was recently reported, the Amazonian rainforest lost 10000 square miles in 2004 alone. It seems that all one can do is stand tall at the funeral to pay respect.
Lest one lash out too quickly at the misguided missionaries or encroaching campesinos, Plotkin does a majestic job of introducing us to these characters and showing how each is doing what is right in its own way. It's just that the rainforest was never meant to take on modernity and humanity's billions. As the two clash, modernity-as has been its record-wins, even at the loss of irreplaceable natural resources.
The book is hard to put down and if one needs more of the same, "One River" should be the next read. With enough interest in the Amazon and its issues perhaps, just perhaps, a critical mass of people can come together to better protect this ecological and anthropological treasure trove.
A Phenomenal Book April 25, 1998
Samuel R. Pryor (Los Angeles, California USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I agree wholeheartedly with the rave reviews for this book and it has become one of my favorites (I even sent it to an ethnobotanist in Yap as a must read). Not only is it wonderfully well-written, and not only does it address crucial ecological concerns, but it is an exciting account of Plotkin's effort to identify and explore the medical possibilities of Amazonian plants, while preserving the indigineous lore about their uses, both medicinal and spiritual; the discovery and adoption of plants by Europeans and North Americans, and Plotkin's own adventures. I found some it so fascinating on so many levels I'd read it to my family (okay, I know that may be obnoxious, but I couldn't restrain myself). It's thought-provoking, important and absolutely fascinating. Can't recommend it highly enough!!
This was the book that turned me on to Ethnobotany. June 9, 1999
jakes@hotbot.com (San Jose, California)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Reading this changed my perspective on Western civilization forever. One example is the author's revelation that the indiginous peoples weren't hunter-"gatherers" at all, but rather gardeners of the world's remaining Eden, inheritors of an agricultural tradition far more ancient and advanced than ours. I was stunned by the realization that Western agriculture's monocultures of neat little rows laid out in a landscape of squares is the simplistic imposition of a human order on a far more complex natural order- an order that the Amazonian tribes incorporate in the design of their jungle-garden. A mindblowing paradigm shift awaits you, especially if you bring some knowledge of complex adaptive systems and/or Periodic Equilibrium evolution to this lucid journal. And this amazing personal account is a ripping good yarn. The only thing this book needs is a follow-up epilog, a "where are they now" of the pharmaceuticals, the shamans, the tribes, and the author's efforts to save them from extinction. A warning: Rereading this book in the summer of '98 while watching the rainforests of Indonesia and Mexico burn deeply depressed me. It was like a thousand libraries of Alexandria going up in smoke. Future generations will never forgive us.
Book that changed my life May 16, 2001
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I just wanted to say that this book lead me in a new direction in life. i am a medical student with no direction and this helped me realize that there is so much of value out there that we have yet even to discover let alone understand. I am not saying that everyone should have this book, rather letting others know that this book is beautiful and rich. Easy reading and powerfully amazing. There are no bad trips, only experiences. Enjoy, John
Extremely captivating book, impossible to put down June 15, 1999
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book gives you a need to go down to South America and experience the things that the author has written so well about, he gives someone such an urge and strong emotions when writing of the tribes danger of extinction
Showing reviews 1-5 of 51
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