Master Plant

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.

• List of IllustrationsList of TablesContributorsForeword: From Gift of the Deities to Scourge among HumansRobin Wright, University of Florida, Gainesville, USAAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Changing Landscape of Tobacco Use in Lowland South AmericaAndrew Russell, Durham University, UK and Elizabeth Rahman, University of Oxford, UKPart I: Tobacco in Ecological and Historical Contexts1. A Deep History of Tobacco in Lowland South AmericaAugusto Oyuela-Caycedo, University of Florida, USA and Nicholas C. Kawa, Ball State University, USA2. Methods of Tobacco Use among Two Arawakan-speaking Peoples in Southwestern Amazonia: A Case Study of Structural DiffusionPeter Gow, University of St Andrews, UK3. Tobacco and Shamanic Agency in the Upper Amazon: Historical and Contemporary PerspectivesFrançoise Barbira-Freedman, University of Cambridge, UKPart Two: Shifting Perspectives4. Singing White Smoke: Tobacco Songs from the Ucayali ValleyBernd Brabec de Mori, University of Graz, Austria5. Cool Tobacco Breath: The Uses and Meanings of Tobacco among the People of the CentreJuan Alvaro Echeverri, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia6. Tobacco and Water: Everyday BlessingsElizabeth Rahman, University of Oxford, UKPart Three: Changing Landscapes7. Commercial Cigarettes and Tamï Ale among the Wayana in Northern Amazonia Renzo S. Duin, Leiden University, The Netherlands8. Landscapes of Desire and Tobacco Circulation in the Yanomami Ethos Alejandro Reig, University of Oxford, UK9. Of Tobacco and Well-being in Indigenous AmazoniaJuan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti, University of St Andrews, UK10. Smoking Tobacco and Swinging the Chicha: On Different Modes of Sociality among Guna ('Kuna') PeoplePaolo Fortis, Durham University, UKBibliographyIndex

[An] interesting book ... [that presents] anthropological insights on different uses of tobacco among indigenous peoples of Western Amazonia. Anthropos Tobacco, the ubiquitous and foundational plant of South American Indian shamanism, has too often been taken for granted. This edited collection puts tobacco back in the limelight where it rightly belongs. With its broad-ranging ethnographic cases, historical depth, varied analytic approaches and contemporary relevance, this landmark collection will remain the standard reference for years to come. -- Stephen Hugh-Jones, University of Cambridge, UK With The Master Plant, Russell and Rahman have created an invaluable and pragmatic resource about people in Lowland South America who integrate tobacco into ritual practices, including personal transcendence through shamanism. The authors promote a discourse that moves beyond the view of tobacco use as vehicle for tobacco industry profits. This book should be required reading for global public health and tobacco control researchers, policy makers and advocates, who see themselves working in a culturally competent manner with non-dominant communities. -- Marty Otanez, University of Colorado, USA