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

Mark J. Plotkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

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.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Ethnobotanist Plotkin details the alternative medicines he discovered during an apprenticeship to the shamans of the Amazon rainforests.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Peter Smith Pub Inc (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844671320
• ISBN-13: 978-0844671321
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,373,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Phenomenal Book, April 25, 1998

By 

Samuel R. Pryor "Sampry" (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest (Paperback)

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!!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good science, good work, March 5, 2000

By 

"dusty_pages" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest (Paperback)

Mark Plotkin takes the reader on a journey to the Amazon rainforests of Brazil and Suriname, along the way teaching about rainforest ecology, the medicinal plants and rituals of shamans, indigenous cultures, and his own scientific methods. Although his prose is at times tedious and repetitive, the story itself is a fascinating one, and his determination to give something back to the people of the region is admirable. The story unfolds in a way that allows the reader to understand what is happening to the rainforest both culturally and ecologically, and it offers not merely a criticism of western society but a set of reasonable solutions that could benefit the region, not just ecologically but economically. Plotkin is a responsible researcher whose work should be a model for future ethnobotanists.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This was the book that turned me on to Ethnobotany., June 9, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (San Jose, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest (Paperback)

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.