#wade davis

Wade Davis

"But the thing about tryptamines is they cannot be taken orally because they're denatured by an enzyme found naturally in the human gut called monoamine oxidase. They can only be taken orally if taken in conjunction with some other chemical that denatures the MAO.

Now, the fascinating things are that the beta-carbolines found within that liana are MAO inhibitors of the precise sort necessary to potentiate the tryptamine.

So you ask yourself a question:

How, in a flora of 80,000 species of vascular plants, do these people find these two morphologically unrelated plants that when combined in this way, created a kind of biochemical version of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts?

Well, we use that great euphemism, "trial and error," which is exposed to be meaningless. But you ask the Indians, and they say,

"The plants talk to us."

Well, what does that mean? This tribe, the Cofan, has 17 varieties of ayahuasca, all of which they distinguish a great distance in the forest, all of which are referable to our eye as one species.

And then you ask them how they establish their taxonomy and they say, "I thought you knew something about plants. I mean, don't you know anything?" And I said, "No."

Well, it turns out you take each of the 17 varieties in the night of a full moon, and it sings to you in a different key.

Now, that's not going to get you a Ph.D. at Harvard, but it's a lot more interesting than counting stamens."

- Wade Davis

Wade Davis

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: 28 July 1977

Ethnicity: African American

🇭🇹The film differs from many other films in that it includes real voodoo elements. An example of this is the moon goddess Erzulie. Voodoo is above all an ancestral worship. Similar elements are found in all cultures. The soul of the dead (manes) has similar features to the mythology of the ancient Greeks (daimons).🇬🇷

👨‍🍳I think the best thing about the film is that voodoo is presented as it is, a mixture of cultures, a melting pot. This has been one of the most significant factors in the history of witchcraft in the background of witchcraft and magic trials (witch processes). The people have lived alongside new culture and past customs, these are mixed and this has not been acceptable to the state. There is a desire to get rid of old ways, because they were dangerous and threatening politically and psychologically.🤔

🌍This was also a reality in the lives of slaves imported from Africa. All their symbols related to their indigenous religion were punishable, the punishments were in addition to imprisonment, whipping and hanging. ⛓

Listen more 🎧: Voodoo films, history of vodoun…

🛋Cultural mental health research is interested in considering that if an immigrant has a background of bad spirits associated with a mental disorder, can psychiatry unequivocally determine that a patient is delusional? I think Craven’s film also deals with this theme to some extent.

🎭The final solution to the film is silly and very 80’s. Bill Pullman is a kind of Indiana Jones, but not in a very racist way, and not very superior way. Zakes Mokae is very 80’s type of toturer, psychopath and ultimate bad oppressor. This is again very US (white) vs. THEM (black) movie. Admittedly, even in this film, the representation of the wild, erotic and exotic remains for the woman (witch) Erzulie, played by Trinitadian Cathy Tyson. Perhaps too black woman was ”too much” for this role?

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Sources: Davis 1985, Krzywinska 2001