Rating: 
Summary: Brendan's Review of the Book
Review: (...)The Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice is riveting, nonfiction, adventure that takes place in the Amazonian rainforest. In 1974, the author, Mark Plotkin decided how he would spend his life, after attending a lecture at Harvard University given by Richard Evans Schultes, a world authority on ethnobotany. In 1979 Plotkin began the first of his travels to the Amazonian rain forests. His travels would take him to French Guiana, Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela. He became an apprentice to the master shamans of the Tirio and Wayana tribes. In return he recorded what he learned so the information could be passed on to future generations. As the author notes, "Every time a shaman dies, it is as if a library burned down." The book also portrays invaluable information about botany, medicine, ecosystems, zoology, sociology, and history. It reminds us all that the rainforest and its people are all part of a fragile environment that could easily be lost forever. The author demonstrates through his writing the value of the rainforest plants to modern medicine and the importance of the survival of the people who are indigenous to the area.
Rating:
Summary: Brendan's Review of the Book
Review: (...) The Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice is riveting, nonfiction, adventure that takes place in the Amazonian rainforest. In 1974, the author, Mark Plotkin decided how he would spend his life, after attending a lecture at Harvard University given by Richard Evans Schultes, a world authority on ethnobotany. In 1979 Plotkin began the first of his travels to the Amazonian rain forests. His travels would take him to French Guiana, Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela. He became an apprentice to the master shamans of the Tirio and Wayana tribes. In return he recorded what he learned so the information could be passed on to future generations. As the author notes, "Every time a shaman dies, it is as if a library burned down." The book also portrays invaluable information about botany, medicine, ecosystems, zoology, sociology, and history. It reminds us all that the rainforest and its people are all part of a fragile environment that could easily be lost forever. The author demonstrates through his writing the value of the rainforest plants to modern medicine and the importance of the survival of the people who are indigenous to the area.
Rating: 
Summary: There's magic in there
Review: After reading A Shaman's Apprentice I have an even greater respect for both the rainforest and the people trying to perserve it. The book is a fast read, to my surprise, unlike other environmental books that seem slow. This story is peppered with intersting discovers of medicinal plants, how the natives use them andamusing stories of a white man in a rainforest world. A book that will definately have you awed by the powers of plants and how science relies so critically on this huge medicine chest.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting way to view the Amazon
Review: Folks who have seen Sean Connery in the Medicine Man know that there are cures to be found in the jungle. Mark Plotkin writes a story of truth being stranger than fiction, as he recounts his stories in the Amazon jungle. Experiments with halucinagens go hand in hand with the identification of rich sources of vitamin C.
We are also handed a primer in ethnobotany, the search for scientific basis of folk medicine. Sometimes it's real, sometimes it's not, and just perhaps there's a spritual element too. (Or is that the halucinagens?) Either way, you're left with an appreciation for the decreasing pharmaceutical wealth of the Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: For those interested in ecology and other cultures
Review: I bought this book several years ago at a book store going out of business, one of the very few books left, thus I liberated it from the shelf and paid a fraction of the cost. I read this book in one sitting, and re-read it again a year or so later. This book give insight that the natives of the jungles know how to live off the land and that medical science has yet to catch up to the past. This book will also bring you aware that if we keep destroying the environment we may loose the cure to a disease that could save many lives. He talks about his encounters with the natives and becomes one of them, by living with them. He brings you into the tribe as if you were his assistant helping out. It is a book you won't forget after reading. I highly recomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book on Shamanism and the Jungle
Review: I read this book years ago, and still find myself thinking about, referring to it, etc. I can't tell you how much of an impact it has had on my thinking. Should be required reading for all med students.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book on Shamanism and the Jungle
Review: I read this one recently and I say that without a doubt if you are considering buying a book on shamanism buy this one. It was great, and postive and helpful in the sense that by coming to understand the culture of the indigenous rainforest inhabitants you learn to respect the forest, or la selva, and desire to protect it from modern encroachment. Great book in all respects; exciting, informed, exotic... buy this one.
I recently finished another shamanic book recently which was pretty damn good too -- Memetic Magic, by K Packwood, I think. Takes shamanism to a whole new level check this one out too probably.
Rating:
Summary: Great book! Read this NOW!
Review: Mark J. Plotkin's great work has really opened my horizons up to realize the plight facing world society. Through demonstrating the vast economic importance of ethnobotanical knowledge to the rest of the world, the reader feels the tragedy of the rain forest being depleted. The world's rain forests are the most complex biomasses on earth, and there are myriads of species of plants that have never before been seen, that could yield potentially useful medicines. The recording and finding of these medicines is found through conversational exchange with tribal peoples, who have evolved their botanical knowledge through thousands of years of trial-and-error. Finding these new medicines is important not only to the current medical sphinxes plaguing society (AIDS, cancer, etc.), but also for the inevitable medical problems we will face in the future. An all-around excellent book! It reads like an adventure novel, and the style of prose is transfixing, and enormously captivating.
Rating: 
Summary: Apprentice?
Review: There is little if anything about Amazonian shamanism in here.
The book is basically about a tourist who ventures into the Amazon, meets a few shamans and takes hoasca, the hallucinogenic brew. Where apprenticeship comes in here i honestly cannot tell.
What Plotkin does not say is that he is a founder of "Shaman Inc.", a pharmaceutical company the function of which is to go to these old shamans, appropriate their knowledge for a pittance and package it into pills for Western consumers. Rather unsavory stuff, IMO.
Of course, those who speak, do not know. This is all too true in this book.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This is an absolutely amazing book. Basic story: autobiographical accounts of an enthnobotanist looking for medicinal plants in the Amazon rainforest. Daniel Quinn talks about 'The Great Forgetting' in the Story of B. But this books really hammers home how great a Forgetting it has been, and how much of a loss it will be when tribal cultures have been totally wiped out. Whereas our cultures may date back several thousands of years at most, the cultures of these people have been distilled over so much longer a period. I remember when reading 'Roots' I was stricken and moved by the oral traditions of the tribes (preserving their ancestoral history by word of mouth). I got a similar feeling here as well.. In one part the author talks about the tribe telling of ancestors who 'crossed through great cold, wrapping themselves in animal skins..'. Apparently it is generally accepted that the Indians of South America crossed over from Asia during the last Ice Age. Can you imagine a culture rich enough to preserve stories dating back twenty+ thousand years? The book's focus is definitely on the author's search for the flora (and sometimes fauna) of the jungle. However, there is a lot more to take away from it. Highly recommended reading.
| 
