Tagged with Anthropology

Savage Moderns: Avatar-Style Ecocide in the Real World

Niall Fahy
niallrealthumb.jpgThe most lucrative movie of all time depicts the genocidal plight of an indigenous race that gets in the way of a mining operation. But we don't have to look to sci-fi for examples of this -- up to 300,000 West Papua natives have been killed to put gold in the chips of the computer you're looking at now. (more)
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Stephan Beyer Drinks Up

Erik Davis
beyerthumb.jpgIn contrast to many Euro-American aya fans, who fetishize the otherness of the Amazonian shaman, Beyer does not characterize the Amazon's techniques of religious ecstasy as archaic residues free from any contamination from today's globalized world. The culture of ayahuasca is both stronger and weaker than that. (more)
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The Ayahuasca Experience

Jeremy Narby
narbythumb.jpgYou remain lucid inside, an observer. The anthropologist taking notes can be inside a maelstrom of visual hallucinations. It is as if it was a science-fiction movie, you're saying: "Wow, what a film!" (more)
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Immanentizing the Eschaton: An Interview with Dennis McKenna

Alexander Price
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Ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna discusses his brother Terence, the legendary "La Chorerra experiment," and Timewave Zero. (more)

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A Return to Being Human

Hardin Tibbs
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We follow a reductionist model of human beings as self-seeking, selfish, almost robotic, creatures. We need to value the wholeness of being human and apply this in our relationship with the world. (more)

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Shamans and Charlatans: Assessing Castaneda's Legacy

ST Frequency
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When first published in 1968, Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan was hailed as a groundbreaking ethnographic account of Native American shamanism. With fame came scrutiny, however, and a debate clouded Castaneda's legacy. But there's no doubt that both Castaneda and Don Juan shaped the Western world's understanding of entheogens and Native American culture. (more)

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