Master Plant
Regular price
€192.20
Amazonian anthropology
Amazonian Shamanism
Auxiliary Spirits
Ayahuasca Shamanism
Cassava Bread
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Category=JHMC
Chilli Sauce
colonial commodity exchange
Commercial Cigarettes
Elbow Pipe
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ethnobotany
Genus Nicotiana
indigenous healing practices
indigenous tobacco cultural significance
Lowland South America
Manioc Beer
Manuel Mahua
master plant
Nicotiana
Nicotiana Rustica
Nicotiana Species
Northwestern Amazonia
Paraponera Clavata
public health perspectives
shamanic rituals
South America
Southwestern Amazonia
Terra Preta
Tobacco Juice
Tobacco Smoke
Tobacco Snuff
Tobacco Woman
transnational tobacco industry
Ucayali Region
Vegetable Salt
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9781472587541
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 12 Mar 2015
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Described as a ‘master plant’ by many indigenous groups in lowland South America, tobacco is an essential part of shamanic ritual, as well as a source of everyday health, wellbeing and community. In sharp contrast to the condemnation of the tobacco industry and its place in contemporary public health discourse, the book considers tobacco in a more nuanced light, as an agent both of enlightenment and destruction.Exploring the role of tobacco in the lives of indigenous peoples, The Master Plant offers an important and unique contribution to this field of study through its focus on lowland South America: the historical source region of this controversial plant, yet rarely discussed in recent scholarship. The ten chapters in this collection bring together ethnographic accounts, key developments in anthropological theory and emergent public health responses to indigenous tobacco use. Moving from a historical study of tobacco usage – covering the initial domestication of wild varieties and its value as a commodity in colonial times – to an examination of the transcendent properties of tobacco, and the magic, symbolism and healing properties associated with it, the authors present wide-ranging perspectives on the history and cultural significance of this important plant. The final part of the book examines the changing landscape of tobacco use in these communities today, set against the backdrop of the increasing power of the national and transnational tobacco industry.The first critical overview of tobacco and its uses across lowland South America, this book encourages new ways of thinking about the problems of commercially exploited tobacco both within and beyond this source region.
Andrew Russell is a Reader in the Department of Anthropology and a Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing at Durham University, UK.Elizabeth Rahman is a social and medical anthropologist based at the University of Oxford, UK and is a Postdoctoral Associate of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
