Books that changed how I see the world, part 1: Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

I'm sure most people go through this when they start their blog, but when I was brainstorming what to write about, I couldn't help but think of my favorite books, not necessarily books that I would read over and over, but ones that really impacted me.  I'm always eager to share a good book with someone who's interested, so here's the first installment in my list of books that changed the way I view the world.  Needless to say, I highly recommend every one of the books that make it onto this list.

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, by Mark Plotkin

I dragged this book around for five years before I finally had time to read it.  When I did, I couldn't put it down.

I always knew the world's rain forests hold plants that can be used as medicines, and this book provides living details of this, but the book also helped me see the many ways in which the developed world is impacting the native cultures, and the conflict that exists between protecting those cultures versus transitioning them to interacting with the developed world.

There are many sides to this interaction: the missionaries who try to convert "primitives" to Christianity, the aid workers who try to improve living standards and health, the anthropologists who study their culture as an oddity, the tourists who appear to have so much wealth.  Western medicine plays a particularly complex role in this tango between cultures.  All of these things are illustrated as the author recounts his experiences living with several tribes in the Amazon over a number of years.  Reading this book gave me a much greater understanding of the issues surrounding previously isolated cultures and the struggle that exists between retaining their identity versus integrating into the wider world.

The story is a race against time and, even though the author is an ethno-botanist, the story is compelling.