Historian Isaac Campos combines wide-ranging archival research with the latest scholarship on the social and cultural dimensions of drug-related behavior in this telling of marijuana's remarkable history in Mexico. Introduced in the sixteenth century by t

New information from Inquisition documents shows how African slaves in Mexico adapted to the constraints of the Church and the Spanish crown in order to survive in their communities.

The Tarahumara, one of North America’s oldest surviving aboriginal groups, call themselves Rarámuri, meaning “nimble feet”—and though they live in relative isolation in Chihuahua, Mexico, their agility in long-distance running is famous worldwide. Tarahumara Medicine is the first in-depth look into the culture that sustains the “great runners.” Having spent a decade in Tarahumara communities, initially as a medical student and eventually as a physician and cultural observer, author Fructuoso Irigoyen-Rascón is uniquely qualified as a guide to the Rarámuri’s approach to medicine and healing. In developing their healing practices, the Tarahumaras interlaced religious lore, magic, and careful observations of nature. Irigoyen-Rascón thoroughly situates readers in the Rarámuri’s environment, describing not only their health and nutrition but also the mountains and rivers surrounding them and key aspects of their culture, from long-distance kick-ball races to corn beer celebrations and religious dances. He describes the Tarahumaras’ curing ceremonies, including their ritual use of peyote, and provides a comprehensive description of Tarahumara traditional herbal remedies, including their botanical characteristics, attributed effects, and uses. To show what these practices—and the underlying concepts of health and disease—might mean to the Rarámuri and to the observer, Irigoyen-Rascón explores his subject from both an outsider and an insider (indigenous) perspective. Through his balanced approach, Irigoyen-Rascón brings to light relationships between the Rarámuri healing system and conventional medicine, and adds significantly to our knowledge of indigenous American therapeutic practices. As the most complete account of Tarahumara culture ever written, Tarahumara Medicine grants readers access to a world rarely seen—at once richly different from and inextricably connected with the ideas and practices of Western medicine.

"Excepcional libro para todos aquellos que se inician en el mundo del Esoterismo y para todos aquellos profesionales que quieran o necesiten ampliar sus conocimientos en la materia ya que nos permite ver el lado oculto de los rituales mágicos.Con extrema claridad y sencillez de expresión logra acercarse a todo aquel lector que busque en esta obra un método de consulta en sus prácticas habituales.Llega a todo y a todos aportando la luz tan necesaria hoy en día."Christopher Dawson.Open University of Advanced Sciences Inc. Florida (EEUU)