Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia

Great book especially to dispel a lot of New Age Tourism Myths created after in the 21st Century to create Feminist Beliefs. Aya = life- death or the soul and huasca = vine . The Brazilian, Columbian and Peruvian Curenderos did not allow Tribal Indigenous Women to ever use Ayahuasca. They were murdered if the did . Due to Feminist Tourism the Myth of Grandmother or Mother Ayahuasca was created and to make money from entitled Western Tourism, now Indigenous Women are used as Curenderos

This is much more of a picture book than I had expected but it is a fascinating book. For the most part of it's 270 pages there are full page photos of plants, places and traditional people of Amazonia engaged in the use of medicinal plants, traditional art or music. Accompanying the photos are brief one to two paragraph descriptions of what peoples use the plant, where they are located, where the plant is found and what its traditional usage is.The black and white photos are of places rarely seen including sacred waterfalls, rock formations, unique endemic forest and plant communities that are not often depicted in photographic books on the amazon region.This is a great book to thumb through and read as your curiosity is caught by one page after another showing a scene of extensive forest, a cliff-side pictograph, a strikingly bizarre flower. It is not a detailed text of ethnobotany, it is more like coming across an explorer's own notes and pictures that gives you a sense of privilege to view.

This is a tale of high adventure but with serious purpose. A small group of men and women risk their lives to seek out new medicinal plants amoung the most primative places on Earth. They call themselves Ethno-Botanists in that they are part Anthropologist and part Botanist.The Shaman of the Amazon are the world's foremost experts on which are the usefull plants among the millions of plants in the one of the most genectically diverse plant concentrations on the planet. If your looking for medicianal plants this is the place and the shaman are the ones to ask.The quest to capture this knowlege is given extra importance by the certainty that contact with the outside is quickly erasing the only places where it exists - in the heads of the aging Shaman who are disappearing faster then the forest itself

I enjoyed the view into these cultures--really enjoyed it, tho' many of the photographs seemed staged. This book really is about "medicine men" and the one mention of "and elder Tikuna medicine woman", seemed viewed through a limited Western / patriarchal lens, suggesting the children were afraid of her because she can "hex" them. I do recommend the book, but as you are reading, keep in mind that the women of these cultures also have a deep relationship, not only with the plants as food, but also with the plants as medicine and as a doorway into the cosmos. They also have their ceremonies. The authors' "lack of "seeing" women in their fullness whilst they were amongst these peoples does make me cautious with the rest of the information in this book.

This book is a must-have if you're interested in Ayahuasca, DMT, the Amazon, shamans, rituals, etc. . it is all contained in this wonderful book. GREAT READ! Nice addition to the book collection!

This is a book that I found most interesting. Having an interest of mans conception of God and the Spirit world and having been raised in the Christian tradition I find it fascinating to learn how others in this diverse universe worship and believe.

great book