Constantino Manuel Torres, known as Manuel Torres, is an archaeologist and

ethnobotanist 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 m ...

specialising in the ethnobotany of

pre-columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

South America and the Caribbean. In particular, he has shed much light on the

Taíno The Taíno were a historic indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the pri ...

use of

Anadenanthera ''Anadenanthera'' is a genus of South American trees in the Legume family, Fabaceae. The genus contains two to four species, including '' A. colubrina'' and '' A. peregrina''. These trees respectively are known to the western world primarily a ...

snuff

Cohoba Cohoba is a Taíno Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which the ground seeds of the ''cojóbana'' tree (''Anadenanthera'' spp.) were inhaled, the Y-shaped nasal snuff tube used to inhale the substance, and the psychoactive drug that was inha ...

, its paraphernalia and associated archaeology.

Selected published works

*''The Use of Anadenanthera colubrina var. Cebil by Wichi (Mataco) Shamans of the Chaco Central, Argentina.'' Yearbook for ethnomedicine and the study of consciousness 5: 41–58, with David Repke as second author. Verläg für Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin, (1998). *''The role of cohoba in Taíno shamanism.'' Eleusis, n.s., no. 1: 38–50, Museo Civico di Rovereto, Trento, Italy, (1998). *''Exploring the San Pedro de Atacama/Tiahuanaco Relationship.'' In Penny Dransart, ed., Andean Art -Visual Expression and its Relationship with Andean Values and Beliefs, Worldwide Archaeology Series vol. 13, pp. 78–108, with William J Conklin as second author, Avebury Press, Great Britain, (1995). *''Iconografía Tiwanaku y Alucinógenos en San Pedro de Atacama: Sus Implicaciones para el Estudio del Horizonte Medio Andino.'' In Josep María Fericgla, ed., Plantas, chamanismo y estados de consciencia, pp. 151–173, Los Libros de la Liebre de Marzo, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, (1994). *''Snuff Powders from Pre-Hispanic San Pedro de Atacama: Chemical and Contextual Analysis.'' Co-authored with D. Repke, K. Chan, D. McKenna, A. Llagostera, and R. E. Schultes. Current Anthropology 32(5): 640–649, University of Chicago Press, (1991). *''The Iconography of South American Snuff Trays and Related Paraphernalia.'' Etnologiska Studier Series, no. 37, 305 pp., 193 plates. Göteborgs Etnografiska Museum, Sweden, (1987). *''Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America.'' Co-authored with David B. Repke. Haworth Press, (2005)

External links

Florida International University faculty profile
21st-century Chilean botanists Anthropology writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Ethnobotanists Chilean archaeologists American archaeologists 20th-century Chilean botanists {{botanist-stub