When Sacred Plants Turn into Resources. Review of “Cull of Personality: Ayahuasca, Shamanism and the Death of the Healer” by Kevin Tucker Black, Black and Green Press: Denver 2019, 208 pages
Zuzanna Sadowska
Ethnologia Polona December 18, 2020 DOI: 10.23858/ethp.2020.41.2454 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstractAbstract
Cull of Personality: Ayahuasca, Shamanism and the Death of the Healer tells a story of colonial encounters with different worlds, with a primary focus on the processes associated with turning human and non-human others into resources. Along with Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World and the signing of the Treaty at Tordesillas, which divided its territory between European empires, began the era of the exploitation of local people, plants, animals and minerals. The author of the book, like many other scholars, points out that despite the fall of imperial powers, Western domination is not just a part of a cruel past, but is still enacted in many material and immaterial forms: inter alia in Euro-American claims on indigenous knowledge. In the light of the “psychedelic renaissance” (known also as a psychedelic turn) and the globalization of entheogens 1 , Kevin Tucker’s book offers a valuable approach to the phenomenon of the mainstreaming of psychedelic medicine plants. He reminds us that the history of ayahuasca is strictly intertwined with the history of colonialism, and that we should bear this in mind when engaging in practices connected with the Amazonian sacred brew. However, the author leaves no hope that Westerners may establish positive and sustainable relations with indigenous worlds, and postulates that they rather should stay away from them. The starting point for Tucker’s reflection is the tragic death of Maestra Olivia, a plant medicine healer from the Shipibo-Conibo group. She was shot by Sebastian Woodroffe, a Canadian who was lynched afterwards by the local community as an act of revenge. The recording of this assassination spread across the Internet and became a matter of global interest. Woodroffe, like many Western travellers and spiritual seekers, came to the Peruvian rainforest in search of ayahuasca , the potent
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |