6835: Lawless comments on Wade Davis, Corbett adds

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Lawless <lawless@twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu>

Wade Davis is NOT an anthropologist.  His degree is, I believe, in botany.


Corbett adds:  Actually Wade Davis' academic background is not
so early to classify in this context.  His field is ethno-botany.
The presupposition of the field is that the impact of mind
altering drugs is a combination of the botanical and chemical
impact on the one hand, and the cultural "set" on the other.

Thus ethno-botanist explore the chemistry of the plants and the
ethnology of the experience surrounding the taking of such
plants.

This latter work, if no mainline anthropology is quite close
and his studies and field work all demonstrate this quite strongly.

Bob Corbett