Clancy Cavnar

An essential new collection that explores the cultural, medicinal, and spiritual traditions of marijuana, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and other psychedelics-informed by both Western and Indigenous knowledgePsychedelic Plant Medicines of the Americas is a collection of 23 psychedelic-specific articles, written by historians, anthropologists, psychologists, and those from other fields in the humanities. Edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate, PhD-the executive director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines-this book includes contemporary Indigenous voices and weaves together deep understandings of Indigenous and Western encounters.
It offers the broadest, most up-to-date perspectives of any book on the field of psychedelics, including explorations of:. Marijuana's colonial history in Mexico. Psilocybin mushrooms' traditional and contemporary uses. Ayahuasca's and peyote's roles in Indigenous and religious contexts. Many more psychoactive plant medicines, including coca and tobaccoThe anthology is a critical reminder, at a time when psychedelics continue to become more popular and mainstreamed at a global level, that these plant medicines are more than a facet of Western counterculture-they're central to the Indigenous cultures and lifeways that sustain them.
Gaining a greater understanding of why people have used and continue to use psychedelic plant medicines-informed by those with rich expertise and knowledge histories-is imperative. The editors and contributors offer a vital, comprehensive, and deeply rooted examination of plant medicine ontologies.