Mexico
On the ancient Mexican names of the hallucinogenic plants of the genus Solandra
Bernardino de Sahagún, cacahuaxóchitl, ethnobotany, Francisco Hernández, Mexico, Nahuatl, poyomatli, tecomaxóchitlBy: GIORGIO SAMORINI – Ethnographic evidence of the current use of plants of the genus Solandra as visionary agents among some Mexican ethnic groups leads to a reconsideration of these plants as possibly known and used for a long time by native populations and to a search for their traces in the precolonial past. One…
Violenza e simulacro. Imprese minerarie transnazionali a Wirikuta: scenario di una tragedia nazionale
By: ARTURO DEL ÁNGEL GUTIÉRREZ – Questo articolo analizza la stretta relazione che esiste tra il popolo messicano degli Huichol, e una zona desertica che si trova nello stato di San Luis Potosí. Ogni anno, gli Huichol realizzano un pellegrinaggio al deserto alla ricerca del cactus peyote. Questo pellegrinaggio e le modalità in cui è…
The Tree of Life Design From Central Asia to Navajoland and Back (with a Mexican Detour. Part 2
By: SANDRA BUSATTA – The Tree of Life is an archetype that appears in art and literature the world over, from the Biblical Garden of Eden with its Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge, to India, where the symbol is represented by a voluptuous woman with her arm around a tree that blossoms with…
The Jaguar: The Aztecs’ Dark Side of Power
By: SANDRA BUSATTA – Anthropologists have found especially useful to analyse human relationships with animals, including the meanings assigned to them and the ways of classifying them. Lévi-Strauss in particular, thought that animal species offered “conceptual support for social differentiation”. In his study of feline symbolism, Saunders, in turn, argues that studying it offers the…