Thank you for buying the book. I really hope that you enjoy it.

I think that several features distinguish mestizo shamanism, to a greater or lesser degree, from Upper Amazonian indigenous shamanisms. In mestizo shamanism, for example, the role of shaman is combined with that of herbal healer -- roles that are kept distinct in some, but not all, indigenous shamanisms. Mestizo shamans also draw on a large body of popular plant lore regarding the identity, use, and preparation of medicinal plants, while indigenous plant healers -- who, as I said, may or may not also be shamans -- draw on their own and often distinct herbal traditions.

In addition, to a greater degree than indigenous shamanisms, mestizo shamanism has been influenced by both folk Catholicism and by traditional Hispanic medicine -- the doctrine of signatures, for example, and the widespread Hispanic distinction between hot and cold medicines and sicknesses.

Mestizo shamans also appear to share a ceremonial structure that differs from that of indigenous shamans. And mestizo shamans seem -- at least to some degree -- to differ from indigenous shamanisms in the extent to which they have absorbed outside concepts and symbolism, including the images of European biomedicine and -- increasingly today -- the concepts.of ayahuasca tourists regarding the nature, causes, and healing of personal suffering.

At the same time, mestizo shamans are recognizably part of a larger Upper Amazonian religious culture area, characterized by a number of common features -- the use of psychoactive plants; the presence of magical substances kept within the shaman’s body; notions of sickness as caused by the intrusion of pathogenic objects; the ambiguity of shamanic ability to do both good and evil; the central sacrality of tobacco; the acquisition of songs from the spirits; the use of songs for the creation of both medicines and poisons; a focus on healing with the mouth through blowing and sucking; and the importance of singing, whistling, blowing, and rattling in both healing and sorcery.

I hope this answers at least part of your question.

I really appreciate hearing from you.

-- Steve
www.singingtotheplants.com/