Essential Substances: A Cultural History of Intoxicants in Society - Softcover

Rudgley, Richard

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9781568360751: Essential Substances: A Cultural History of Intoxicants in Society

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568360754 ISBN 13: 9781568360751

Publisher: Kodansha USA Inc, 1995

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Explores the cultural and religious uses of hallucinogens

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About the Author:

Richard Rudgley is an anthropologist at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.

From Booklist:

Anthropologist Rudgley takes us on a swift but information-packed tour of humanity's use of intoxicants in the Western world from Paleolithic times to the present. He recounts key archaeological finds that confirmed the ancient use of opium and cannabis, then links these practices to art forms such as cave paintings and certain common geometric patterns. As he roams across Europe, Russia, India, and the Americas, Rudgley chronicles the use of fly agaric mushrooms by Siberian shamans, ponders the botanical identity of soma as described in the Rig Veda, and explains the cults of the yaje among the Tukano Indians in Amazonia and peyote among tribes in the Southwest. One of the most surprising sections in this revelatory book is the discussion of European witches. Their flying was the product of ointment-based intoxicants, and broomsticks had a, let's say, medicinal rather than vehicular function. Rudgley concludes with a somber look at heroin and cocaine abuse. Donna Seaman

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