Among the Indians of Guiana

Ten years of fieldwork on ayahuasca use, from Amazonian curanderos to urban churches and addiction treatment centres. Combines medical anthropology with cognitive science and is honest about the tensions between them.

Ismael Eduardo Apud Pelaez

A wide survey of South American peoples organised around magic and religion: taboos, initiation, the medicine man, hunting ritual and the treatment of the dead. Built on the author own years in the Amazon and the Andes.

Rafael Karsten

Notes from months spent among the peoples of the Putumayo region, covering the medicine man, dance ceremonies, plant knowledge and daily life. Illustrated with early photographs of the communities described.

Thomas Whiffen

A study of the nagual, the guardian spirit and animal double of Mesoamerican belief, tracing the master magicians of the Aztec, Mixtec and Maya worlds and the sacred plants they used.

Daniel G. Brinton