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Ethnomycology
Ethnomycology is the study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi and can be considered a subfield of ethnobotany or ethnobiology. Although in theory the term includes fungi used for such purposes as tinder, medicine (medicinal mushrooms) and food (including yeast), it is often used in the context of the study of psychoactive mushrooms such as psilocybin mushrooms, the ''Amanita muscaria'' mushroom, and the ergot fungus. American banker Robert Gordon Wasson pioneered interest in this field of study in the late 1950s, when he and his wife became the first Westerners on record allowed to participate in a mushroom ''velada'', held by the Mazatec '' curandera'' María Sabina. The biologist Richard Evans Schultes is also considered an ethnomycological pioneer. Later researchers in the field include Terence McKenna, Albert Hofmann, Ralph Metzner, Carl Ruck, Blaise Daniel Staples, Giorgio Samorini, Keewaydinoquay Peschel, John Marco Allegro, Clark Heinrich, John W. Allen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Gordon Wasson
Robert Gordon Wasson (September 22, 1898 – December 23, 1986) was an American author, ethnomycologist, and Vice President for Public Relations at J.P. Morgan & Co. In the course of work funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Wasson made contributions to the fields of ethnobotany, botany, and anthropology. Career Banking industry Wasson began his banking career at Guaranty Trust Company in 1928, and moved to J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1934. That same year, he published a book on the Hall Carbine Affair, in which he attempted to exonerate John Pierpont Morgan from guilt with respect to the incident, which had been viewed as an example of wartime profiteering. As early as 1937, Wasson had been attempting to influence historians Allan Nevins and Charles McLean Andrews regarding Morgan's role in the affair; he used Nevins' report as a reference for his own book on the topic. The matter of Morgan's responsibility for the Hall Carbine Incident remains controversial. On J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnobotany
Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for many aspects of life, such as plants as medicines, foods, intoxicants and clothing. Richard Evans Schultes, often referred to as the "father of ethnobotany", explained the discipline in this way: Ethnobotany simply means ... investigating plants used by societies in various parts of the world. Since the time of Schultes, the field of ethnobotany has grown from simply acquiring ethnobotanical knowledge to that of applying it to a modern society, primarily in the form of pharmaceuticals. Intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing arrangements are important issues in ethnobotany. History The idea of ethnobotany was first proposed by the early 20th century botanist John William Harshberger. While Harshberger did perform ethnobotanical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnobiology
] Ethnobiology is the scientific study of the way living things are treated or used by different human cultures. It studies the dynamic relationships between people, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present.culture to the plant world"'' * in Great Britain, Britain (mid 1960s) with the publication of Claude Lévi-Strauss' book ''The Savage Mind'' legitimating "folk biological classification" as a worthy cross-cultural research endeavour * in France (mid 1970s) with André-Georges Haudricourt's linguistic studies of botanical nomenclature and R. Porteres' and others work in economic biology. Present (1980s–2000s) By the turn of the 21st century ethnobiological practices, research, and findings have had a significant impact and influence across a number of fields of biological inquiry including ecology, conservation biology, development studies, and political ecology. The Society of Ethnobiology advises on its web page: Ethnobiology is a rapidly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giorgio Samorini
Giorgio Samorini (born 1957 in Bologna, Italy) is a psychedelics researcher. He has published many essays and monographs regarding the use of psychoactive A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. Th ... compounds and sacred plants. He was a frequent contributor to, and sometime editor of ''Eleusis the Journal of Psychoactive Plants & Compounds''. Bibliography Books Animals and Psychedelics: The Natural World and the Instinct to Alter Consciousness(2000). Giorgio Samorini. Park Street Press. . * Samorini G., 1995, ''Gli Allucinogeni Nel Mito. Racconti sull'origine delle piante psicoattive''. Nautilus Press, Torino. * Samorini G., 1996, ''L'erba di Carlo Erba. Per una storia della canapa indiana in Italia (1845–1948)'', Nautilus, Torino. * Samorini G., 2001, ''Funghi allucino ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
María Sabina
María Sabina Magdalena García (22 July 1894 – 22 November 1985) was a Mazatec ''curandera'', shaman and poet who lived in Huautla de Jiménez, a town in the Sierra Mazateca area of the Mexican state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico."Sabina Rothenberg 2003, p. x Her healing sacred mushroom ceremonies, called ''veladas'', were based on the use of psilocybin mushrooms, particularly ''Psilocybe caerulescens'', a sacred mushroom important to the Mazatecs. María Sabina's veladas contributed to the popularization of indigenous Mexican ritual use of entheogenic mushrooms among westerners, though this was not her intent. Life and death María Sabina was born outside of Huautla de Jiménez in the Sierra Mazateca toward the end of the 19th century. Though Sabina herself was not sure, she believed her birth year was 1894. Her parents were both '' campesinos''; her mother was María Concepción, while her father, Crisanto Feliciano, died from an illness when she was three years old. She ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psilocybin Mushrooms
Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include ''Psilocybe'', ''Panaeolus'' (including ''Copelandia''), ''Inocybe'', ''Pluteus'', ''Gymnopilus'', and ''Pholiotina''. Psilocybin mushrooms have been and continue to be used in indigenous New World cultures in religious, divinatory, or spiritual contexts. Psilocybin mushrooms are also used as recreational drugs. They may be depicted in Stone Age rock art in Africa and Europe, but are most famously represented in the Pre-Columbian sculptures and glyphs seen throughout North, Central and South America. History Early Prehistoric rock arts near Villar del Humo in Spain, suggests that ''Psilocybe hispanica'' was used in religious rituals 6,000 years ago. The hallucinogenic species of the Psilocybe genus have a history of use among the native peoples of Mesoa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amanita Muscaria After Rain
The genus ''Amanita'' contains about 600 species of agarics, including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide, as well as some well-regarded edible species. This genus is responsible for approximately 95% of the fatalities resulting from mushroom poisoning, with the death cap accounting for about 50% on its own. The most potent toxin present in these mushrooms is α-Amanitin. The genus also contains many edible mushrooms, but mycologists discourage mushroom hunters, other than experts, from selecting any of these for human consumption. Nonetheless, in some cultures, the larger local edible species of ''Amanita'' are mainstays of the markets in the local growing season. Samples of this are ''Amanita zambiana'' and other fleshy species in central Africa, '' A. basii'' and similar species in Mexico, '' A. caesarea'' and the "Blusher" ''Amanita rubescens'' in Europe, and '' A. chepangiana'' in South-East Asia. Other species are used for colouring sauces, such as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keewaydinoquay Peschel
Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel (1919 – July 21,1999) was a scholar, ethnobotanist, herbalist, medicine woman, teacher and author. She claimed she was an Anishinaabeg Elder of the Crane Clan. She was born in Michigan around 1919 and spent time on Garden Island, a traditional Anishinaabeg homeland. Biography According to her biography, Keewaydinoquay was born in a fishing boat en route to the hospital from the Manitou Islands, which capsized shortly thereafter, and her survival was interpreted as miraculous. Her childhood name, meaning "Walks with Bears", derived from an incident where as a toddler she was left on a blanket as her parents gathered blueberries, returning to see her standing by bears, eating blueberries off the bushes. Her adult name Giiwedinokwe, recorded as "Keewaydinoquay", means "Woman of the North est Wind and came from her vision quest. She claimed she apprenticed with the noted Anishinaabeg medicine woman Nodjimahkwe from the age of 9 and worked for many ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Marco Allegro
John Marco Allegro (17 February 1923 – 17 February 1988) was an English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar. He was a populariser of the Dead Sea Scrolls through his books and radio broadcasts. He was the editor of some of the most famous and controversial scrolls published, the '' pesharim''. A number of Allegro's later books, including '' The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross'', brought him both popular fame and notoriety, and also complicated his career. Early life and training Allegro was born in 1923, son of John Allegro and Mabel (''nee'' Perry). Allegro went through Wallington County Grammar School in 1939. He joined the Royal Navy, serving during World War Two. After the war he began training for the Methodist ministry, but found that he was more interested in Hebrew and Greek, so he went to study at Manchester University with fees paid by government grant due to his military service. Allegro received his Honours degree in Oriental Studies at the University of Manche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clark Heinrich
Clark Heinrich (born 1945) is an American author living in the coastal mountains of California, specializing in comparative religion and ethno-botany since 1974. He has reportedly studied with masters of yoga and Western mysticism. He is known for his views on consuming the mushroom fly agaric or ''Amanita muscaria'' as a hallucinogenic to achieve religious ecstasy. His book ''Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy'', which is an improved second edition of his earlier ''Strange Fruit'', explores the role that ''Amanita muscaria'' may have played in various mythologies, belief systems and religious art throughout history, such as Native American Anishinaabeg mythology, the Rig Veda, the Puranas, the biblical Old Testament and New Testament, Gnosticism, the Holy Grail legend, Alchemy and Renaissance painting. The book ''The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist'' deals with possible occurrences of entheogens in general, and ''Amanita muscaria'' in particul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Stamets
Paul Edward Stamets (born July 17, 1955) is an American mycologist and entrepreneur who sells various mushroom products through his company. He is an author and advocate of medicinal fungi and mycoremediation. Early life Stamets was born in Salem, Ohio. He grew up in Columbiana, Ohio with an older brother, John, his twin brother North, and younger siblings. He graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington with a bachelor's degree in 1979. He began his career in the forest as a logger. He has an honorary doctorate from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland. Personal life Stamets is married to Carolyn "Dusty" Yao. Mycological interest Stamets credits his late brother, John, with stimulating his interest in mycology, and studied mycology as an undergraduate student. Having no academic training higher than a bachelor's degree, Stamets is largely self-taught in the field of mycology. Paul Stamets received an Invention Ambassador (2014–201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Ott
Jonathan Ott (born 1949 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an ethnobotanist, writer, translator, publisher, natural products chemist and botanical researcher in the area of entheogens and their cultural and historical uses, and helped coin the term "''entheogen''". Writings Ott has written eight books, co-written five, and contributed to four others, and published many articles in the field of entheogens. He has collaborated with other researchers like Christian Rätsch, Jochen Gartz, and the late ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson. He translated Albert Hofmann's 1979 book ''LSD: My Problem Child'' (''LSD: Mein Sorgenkind''), and ''On Aztec Botanical Names'' by Blas Pablo Reko, into English. His articles have appeared in many publications, including ''The Entheogen Review'', ''The Entheogen Law Reporter'', the ''Journal of Cognitive Liberties'', the ''Journal of Psychoactive Drugs'' (AKA the ''Journal of Psychedelic Drugs''), the ''MAPS Bulletin'', ''Head'', ''High Times'', ''Curare'', ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
