A review of this — 1 year ago
This is an amazing, educational account of Max Plotkin’s adventures as an ethnobotanist among the Indian tribes of the Amazon. He sets out to learn about the medicinal plants of the Amazon from the tribal shamans who know them best. And yes, there are some hallucinogenic plants that are used for black magic purposes, but there are many more for which too many shamans from too many different tribes seem to use for the same purposes – which points to a sound chemical basis for their claims. In many cases, it turns out that the Indians are better chemists than we are, with treatments that Western medicine cannot duplicate.
Which bolsters Plotkin’s argument that we need to preserve not just the rainforest but also the culture in which these treatments thrive. Over several decades of ethnobotanical fieldwork, he sees his friends morph from traditional Indians in thatched houses wearing breechcloths to T-shirt-wearing dwellers of aluminium roofs. He observes that wearing lots of clothes isn’t all that suitable to the Indian physiology – it makes them sweat more, which increases the possibility of fungal infection – and the aluminium roofs make a heck of a din when it rains, without being any more waterproof. He’s also very much against those missionaries who have destroyed the Indian way of life by bringing in Western goods for them to covet and banning various parts of the traditional lifestyle as unchristian. All while gold miners and loggers continue to encroach on their lands, destroying the forest that is their livelihood. And along with it, such gems as the copal tree, whose oil can be used directly in diesel engines.
All in all, a fascinating book with fascinating facts and anecdotes. I kept saying to myself, “Really? I never knew that!” And I came away with a better appreciation for plants and the necessity of preserving plant knowledge for generations to come.
