Mark J. Plotkin's Books

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin

The fascinating account of a pioneering ethnobotanist’s travels in the Amazon—at once a gripping adventure story, a passionate argument for conservationism, and an investigation into the healing power of plants, by the author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know For thousands of years, healers have used plants to cure illness. Aspirin, the world's most widely used drug, is based on compounds originally extracted from the bark of a willow tree, and more than a quarter of medicines found on pharmacy shelves contain plant compounds. Now Western medicine, faced with health crises such as AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer, has begun to look to the healing plants used by indigenous peoples to develop powerful new medicines. Nowhere is the search more promising than in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical forest, home to a quarter of all botanical species on this planet—as well as hundreds of Indian tribes whose medicinal plants have never been studied by Western scientists. In Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin recounts his travels and studies with some of the most powerful Amazonian shamans, who taught him the plant lore their tribes have spent thousands of years gleaning from the rain forest. For more than a decade, Dr. Plotkin raced against time to harvest and record new plants before the rain forests' fragile ecosystems succumb to overdevelopment—and before the Indians abandon their own culture and learning for the seductive appeal of Western material culture. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice relates nine of the author's quests, taking the reader along on a wild odyssey as he participates in healing rituals; discovers the secret of curare, the lethal arrow poison that kills in minutes; tries the hallucinogenic snuff epena that enables the Indians to speak with their spirit world; and earns the respect and fellowship of the mysterious shamans as he proves that he shares both their endurance and their reverence for the rain forest.

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353

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Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101644699

ISBN 13

9781101644690

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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353

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Penguin

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ISBN 10

014012991X

ISBN 13

9780140129915

The Shaman's Apprentice

A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin,Lynne Cherry

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The Shaman's Apprentice

A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin,Lynne Cherry

In a Tirio village deep in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, the shaman Nahtahlah has a place of honor in his tribe. Young Kamanya wants to learn the healing secrets of the forest plants--he hopes that he, too, will become the tribe’s shaman, so that he can cure his people. When the villagers fall sick with an illness that Nahtahlah cannot cure, many lose faith in the shaman’s wisdom--until a foreign woman helps them understand its value while giving Kamanya an opportunity to realize his dream. Lynne Cherry returns to the rain forest with ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin to tell an important story about the healing plants of the earth-and why we must protect them.

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published Date

ISBN 10

054754491X

ISBN 13

9780547544915

The Amazon

What Everyone Needs to Know®

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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The Amazon

What Everyone Needs to Know®

By: Mark J. Plotkin

The Amazon is a land of superlatives. The complex ecosystem covers an area about the size of the continental U.S. The Amazon River discharges 57 million gallons of water per second--in two hours, this would be enough to supply all of New York City's 7.5 million residents with water for a year. Its flora and fauna are abundant. Approximately one of every four flowering plant species on earth resides in the Amazon. A single Amazonian river may contain more fish species than all the rivers in Europe combined. It is home to the world's largest anteater, armadillo, freshwater turtle, and spider, as well as the largest rodent (which weighs over 200 lbs.), catfish (250 lbs.), and alligator (more than half a ton). The rainforest, which contains approximately 390 billion trees, plays a vital role in stabilizing the global climate by absorbing massive amounts of carbon dioxide--or releasing it into the atmosphere if the trees are destroyed. Severe droughts in both Brazil and Southeast Asia have been linked to Amazonian deforestation, as have changing rainfall patterns in the U.S., Europe, and China. The Amazon also serves as home to millions of people. Approximately seventy tribes of isolated and uncontacted people are concentrated in the western Amazon, completely dependent on the land and river. These isolated groups have been described as the most marginalized peoples in the western hemisphere, with no voice in the decisions made about their futures and the fate of their forests. In this addition to the What Everyone Needs to Know® series, ecologist and conservation expert, Mark J. Plotkin, who has spent 40 years studying Amazonia, its peoples, flora, and fauna. The Amazon offers an engaging overview of this irreplaceable ecosystem and the challenges it faces.

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249

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

019066830X

ISBN 13

9780190668303

Medicine Quest

In Search of Nature's Healing Secrets

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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Medicine Quest

In Search of Nature's Healing Secrets

By: Mark J. Plotkin

In Medicine Quest, Mark Plotkin moves beyond the Amazon rainforests of his classic Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice to describe the ongoing race to find new medicines for intractable diseases such as AIDS,cancer, diabetes, and tuberculosis in far-flung places all over the world. While highlighting the unlikely marriage of natural products, indigenous wisdom, and biotechnology, Plotkin details discoveries that are producing stunning results in the laboratory: painkillers from the skin of rainforest frogs, anticoagulants from leech saliva, and antitumor agents from snake venom. An entertaining and educational weave of medicine, ecology, ethnobotany, history, exploration, and adventure, Medicine Quest will thrill scientists, naturalists, and armchair explorers, and heighten our appreciation for the inexhaustible therapeutic potential of our natural world.

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244

Publisher

Penguin Group

Published Date

ISBN 10

0140262105

ISBN 13

9780140262100

The Amazon

What Everyone Needs to Know

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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The Amazon

What Everyone Needs to Know

By: Mark J. Plotkin

Rainforests occupy a special place in the imagination. Literary, historical and cinematic depictions range from a ghastly Green Hell to an idyllic Garden of Eden. In terms of fiction, they fired the already fervent imaginations of storytellers as diverse as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling and even George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in whose books and films they are inhabited by dinosaurs, trod by Indiana Jones, prowled by Mowgli the Jungle Boy and swung through by Tarzan of the Apes. But rainforest fact is no less fascinating than rainforest fiction. Brimming with mystery and intrigue, these forests still harbor lost cities, uncontacted tribes, ancient shamans, and powerful plants than can kill - and cure. The rainforest bestiary extends far beyond the requisite lions, tigers and bears. Flying foxes and winged lizards, arboreal anteaters, rainforest giraffes, cross-dressing spiders that disguise themselves as ants and bats the size of a bumblebees all flourish in these most fabulous of forests along with other zoological denizens that are equally bizarre and spectacular. And no scientist immersed in these ecosystems believes that all the wonders have been found or revealed. Tropical rainforests merit their moniker. They flourish in the tropics - the more than 3000 mile-wide equatorial band between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. And these forests are hot, humid and wet, receiving in the Amazon, on average from 60 to 120 inches of rain per year - as compared to a mere 25 inches in London or 45 inches in Manhattan. However, several sites in the rainforests of northeastern India, of west Africa and western Colombia are drenched by over 400 inches of precipitation per annum. To a large degree, rainfall in the tropics is determined by the so-called "Intertropical Convergence Zone" (ICZ), a band of clouds around the equator created by the meeting of the northeast and southeast trade winds. Also referred to as the "Monsoon Trough," and known to - and dreaded by - sailors over the centuries as the "Doldrums," since the extended periods of calm that sometimes manifested there could strand a sailing vessel for weeks. The constant cloud cover due to the ICZ, the ferocious heat, and the abundant rainfall combine to produce high humidity, sometimes close to 95 per cent in the Amazon, a challenge for visitors unused to such torpor. According to Rhett Butler of Mongabay: "Each canopy tree transpires 200 gallons of water annually, translating roughly into 20,000 gallons transpired into the atmosphere for every acre of canopy trees. Large rainforests (and their humidity) contribute to the formation of rain clouds, and generate as much as 75 per cent of their own rain and are therefore responsible for creating as much as 50 per cent of their own precipitation.""--

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224

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190668288

ISBN 13

9780190668280

Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy

By: Mark Herrmann,David B. Alden

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Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy

By: Mark Herrmann,David B. Alden

In Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy, Mark Herrmann and David B. Alden provide useful practice pointers and overall strategic guidance for attorneys in product liability litigation involving prescription drugs and medical devices.

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539

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199734941

ISBN 13

9780199734948

Paleonutrition

By: Mark Q. Sutton,Kristin D. Sobolik,Jill K. Gardner

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Paleonutrition

By: Mark Q. Sutton,Kristin D. Sobolik,Jill K. Gardner

Paleonutrition is the analysis of prehistoric human diets and the interpretation of dietary intake in relation to health and nutrition. As a field of study, it addresses prehistoric diets in order to determine the biological and cultural implications for individuals as well as for entire populations, placing archaeological interpretations into an anthropological context. Throughout history, and long before written records, human culture has been constantly in flux. The study of paleonutrition provides valuable insights into shifts and changes in human history, whatever their causes. This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on the topic. Intended for students and professionals, it describes the nature of paleonutrition studies, reviews the history of paleonutrition research, discusses methodological issues in the reconstruction of prehistoric diets, presents theoretical frameworks frequently used in paleonutrition research, and showcases examples in which paleonutritional analyses have been successfully conducted on prehistoric individuals, groups, and populations. It offers an integrative approach to understanding state-of-the-art anthropological dietary, health, and nutritional assessments. The most recent and innovative methods used to reconstruct prehistoric diets are discussed, along with the major ways in which paleonutrition data are recovered, analyzed, and interpreted. Paleonutrition includes five contemporary case studies that provide useful models of how to conduct paleonutrition research. Topics range from ancient diets in medieval Nubia to children’s health in the prehistoric American Southwest to honey use by an ethnographic group of East African foragers. As well as providing interesting examples of applying paleonutrition techniques, these case studies illustrate the mutually beneficial linkages between ethnography and archaeology.

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Page Count

386

Publisher

University of Arizona Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0816508216

ISBN 13

9780816508211

Introduction to Cultural Ecology

By: Mark Q. Sutton,E. N. Anderson

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Introduction to Cultural Ecology

By: Mark Q. Sutton,E. N. Anderson

All peoples and cultures face environmental issues—but as this accessible text shows, how they respond to such issues varies widely around the world and across human history. Introduction to Cultural Ecology, Third Edition, familiarizes students with the foundations of the field and provides a framework for exploring what other cultures can teach us about human/environment relationships. Drawing on both biological and cultural approaches, the authors first cover basic principles of cultural anthropology, environmental studies, and human biological adaptations to the environment. They then consider environmental concerns within the context of diverse means of making a living, from hunting and gathering to modern industrial societies; detailed case studies add depth and breadth to the discussion.

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453

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0759123306

ISBN 13

9780759123304

An Introduction to Cultural Ecology

By: Mark Q. Sutton,E. N. Anderson

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An Introduction to Cultural Ecology

By: Mark Q. Sutton,E. N. Anderson

This contemporary introduction to the principles and research base of cultural ecology is the ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses that deal with the intersection of humans and the environment in traditional societies. After introducing the basic principles of cultural anthropology, environmental studies, and human biological adaptations to the environment, the book provides a thorough discussion of the history of, and theoretical basis behind, cultural ecology. The bulk of the book outlines the broad economic strategies used by traditional cultures: hunting/gathering, horticulture, pastoralism, and agriculture. Fully explicated with cases, illustrations, and charts on topics as diverse as salmon ceremonies among Northwest Indians, contemporary Maya agriculture, and the sacred groves in southern China, this book gives a global view of these strategies. An important emphasis in this text is on the nature of contemporary ecological issues, how peoples worldwide adapt to them, and what the Western world can learn from their experiences. A perfect text for courses in anthropology, environmental studies, and sociology.

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Page Count

315

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000323587

ISBN 13

9781000323580

The Amazon

What Everyone Needs to Know®

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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The Amazon

What Everyone Needs to Know®

By: Mark J. Plotkin

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249

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190668318

ISBN 13

9780190668310

The Shaman's Apprentice

A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin,Lynne Cherry

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The Shaman's Apprentice

A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

By: Mark J. Plotkin,Lynne Cherry

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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ISBN 10

054754491X

ISBN 13

9780547544915

The Shaman's Apprentice

A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

By: Lynne Cherry,Mark J. Plotkin

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The Shaman's Apprentice

A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

By: Lynne Cherry,Mark J. Plotkin

Kamanya believes in the shaman's wisdom about the healing properties of plants found in the Amazon rain forest and hopes one day to be a healer for his people.

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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ISBN 10

0152024867

ISBN 13

9780152024864

Book's by Mark J. Plotkin

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

The Shaman's Apprentice

The Shaman's Apprentice

The Amazon

The Amazon

Medicine Quest

Medicine Quest

The Amazon

The Amazon

Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy

Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy

Paleonutrition

Paleonutrition

Introduction to Cultural Ecology

Introduction to Cultural Ecology

An Introduction to Cultural Ecology

An Introduction to Cultural Ecology

The Amazon

The Amazon

The Shaman's Apprentice

The Shaman's Apprentice

The Shaman's Apprentice

The Shaman's Apprentice

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