Books about indigenous mythology

[grollum]

Hey there,

I browsed through most of the book related threads of the nexus and was wondering that there are not so many book suggestions regarding the mythology of indigenous ayahuasca / psychedelics using groups.
Some years ago i read Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy - from Eliade
Which really gave me a good overview about different world pictures.

I just ordered the following book in hope of a scientific overview about different ayahuasca using groups in the amazon.
Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon - from Beyer

I am thinking about getting Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond - from Labate and Cavnar

Do you have more suggestions for books which use common scientific methods in a documentary way and describe in a not to esoteric way different mythologies?

Should i read books from Schultes? Which one? All?

 

[Forestwalker]

I have a lot of suggestions for you , but it's sleepy time for me s here's and I'll post em fors you . In a soon time . Schultes is a good anthropologist to begin with but there are other perspectives , but I do like him . What are you after? Empiricalistic writing ? So many tribes use aya and the exposition is not created equal among the groups . Actually though I don't have many scientific books along what your looking for for modern use only tribal sit and spend time book s based on interp. they are so different , from universal snakes creating the universe to sperm falling from past lives in the form of plants , it all gets weird . Like religion and one groups idea conflicting another . Singing to the plants is good , but there are better books but as I said it all become s opinion after a while , you'll see

 

[grollum]

I also read several other books from authors like Rätsch, Liggenstorfer, Hoffmann, McKenna(both), Storl and some more.

I also ordered One River - from Wade Davis which should cover also some stories about Schultes since he was one of his students.

And: To Drink of Death: The Narrative of a Shuar Warrior - from Janet Wall Hendricks


I just finished reading Dennis Mckennas "Brotherhood of The Screaming Abyss" and i really liked the empirical aspects of it, when he is talking about their times in the amazon.

So I think a mix out of field report and stories from indigenous people about their myths and visions might be cool. Since I am an artist I am really interested in the content of the visions. The Symbols and so on. Also the differences between the Visions of different groups like Shuar, Shipibo and so on, would be interesting.

I searched for example books about the shipibo / Conibo and didn't find so much.
It suprised me to see how few books there are about such a widely known culture.

I started the "Singing to the plants" book and find it a bit confusing and chaotic so far.
Its a somehow wild mix between personal story and some short and chaotic quotes out of really different / divergent books. I can give a full review when finished...

@Forestwalker any suggestion is welcome

 

[endlessness]

There's a book from Giorgio Samorini but im not sure if it has been translated to english, I have it in spanish, it is about creation myths regarding psychedelics, how different tribes describe the appearance of different psychedelics in the world:

LOS ALUCINÓGENOS EN EL MITO (Giorgio Samorini)

www.muscaria.com

 

[Koornut]

This book is a good introduction to indigenous Australian mythology - it's interesting to note that there is very little recorded use of sophisticated psychedelics in most Australian nations, I say sophisticated from a geographic and historic perspective relative to American and European indigenous cultures. It seems the potent, native psychs of Australia were largely overlooked, but there is rich history of native tobacco use.

The Songlines

In this extraordinary book, Bruce Chatwin has adapted a…

www.goodreads.com

 

[grollum]

@endlessness thanks for the hint. I think there is a german version which i wasnt be aware of. which is even better for me . Its called: Rausch und Mythos: Die Entdeckung der psychoaktiven Pflanzen

@Koornut Thanks for you hint. I once read an book which slightly named some of the australien myth. That was really interesting. So it would be a good idea to go deeper in this direction as well...