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Magic darts and messenger molecules: Toward a phytoethnography of indigenous Amazonia
Author(s) -
DALY LEWIS,
SHEPARD GLENN
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8322.12494
Subject(s) - indigenous , vitality , magic (telescope) , shamanism , ethnography , amazon rainforest , personhood , ethnobotany , anthropology , traditional knowledge , sociology , ecology , ethnology , epistemology , history , biology , philosophy , archaeology , medicinal plants , physics , genetics , quantum mechanics
Recent scientific findings on plant intelligence are forcing anthropologists to reconsider indigenous theories of plant vitality. In this article, the authors compare original ethnographic and ethnobotanical research among two different peoples from opposite extremes of lowland South America – the Makushi of Guyana and the Matsigenka of southern Peru – and explore how somatic experiences and the chemosensory properties of plants permeate indigenous understandings of the aetiology of illness and medical efficacy in both the cosmological and microbiological domains. The authors synthesize emerging theory in ecosemiotics, embodiment, plant personhood and plant intelligence with the concept of ‘sensory ecology’ to recast multispecies ethnography as a phytochemical as well as a philosophical endeavour.