Psychedelic Plant Medicines of the Americas: History, Traditions, and Indigenous Voices

An essential new collection that explores the cultural, medicinal, and spiritual traditions of marijuana, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and other psychedelics--informed by both Western and Indigenous knowledge

Psychedelic Plant Medicines of the Americas is a collection of 23 psychedelic-specific articles, written by historians, anthropologists, psychologists, and those from other fields in the humanities. Edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate, PhD--the executive director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines--this book includes contemporary Indigenous voices and weaves together deep understandings of Indigenous and Western encounters. It offers the broadest, most up-to-date perspectives of any book on the field of psychedelics, including explorations of:

- Marijuana's colonial history in Mexico
- Psilocybin mushrooms' traditional and contemporary uses
- Ayahuasca's and peyote's roles in Indigenous and religious contexts
- Many more psychoactive plant medicines, including coca and tobacco

The anthology is a critical reminder, at a time when psychedelics continue to become more popular and mainstreamed at a global level, that these plant medicines are more than a facet of Western counterculture--they're central to the Indigenous cultures and lifeways that sustain them. Gaining a greater understanding of why people have used and continue to use psychedelic plant medicines--informed by those with rich expertise and knowledge histories--is imperative. The editors and contributors offer a vital, comprehensive, and deeply rooted examination of plant medicine ontologies.

Author: Beatriz Caiuby PhD Labate
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 05/26/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.54lbs
Size: 9.93h x 6.86w x 1.19d
ISBN: 9798889842439

About the Author
Dr. Bia Labate, cofounder and executive director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, is an anthropologist, educator, author, speaker, and activist, committed to the protection of sacred plants while amplifying the voices of marginalized communities in the psychedelic science field. She has a PhD in anthropology, and her main areas of interest are the study of psychoactive substances, drug policies, shamanism, ritual, and religion. She is author, coauthor and coeditor of twenty-nine books, one journal special edition and several peer-reviewed articles.

Dr. Henrique Fernandes Antunes holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of São Paulo (2019), has been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, and has held postdoctoral positions at EHESS, the University of Ottawa, and CEBRAP. Currently, he is research director at the Chacruna Institute, a member of CEBRAP's Religion in the Contemporary World Group, and is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP). His research examines the regulation and global circulation of ayahuasca

Nidia A. Olvera Hernández is a Mexican historian and anthropologist. She has a PhD in modern and contemporary history from the Mora Institute in Mexico City. Nidia earned a bachelor's degree in ethnohistory from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and a master's in social anthropology from the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City. Her primary research interests lie in the historical and contemporary dimensions of psychoactive substance use and drug policy. She collaborates as a research associate at Chacruna Latinoamérica in México and contributes to the Journal of Social History of Alcohol and Drugs as associate review editor and is a research fellow at the Consortium for the History of Science. Currently she is a postdoctoral researcher on the project "Poison, Medicine or Magic Potion? Shifting Perspectives on Drugs in Latin America" at Radboud University, Netherlands.

Clancy Cavnar, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist in San Francisco, cofounder of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, and a research associate with NEIP. She holds an MFA in painting, a master's in counseling, and completed the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy at CIIS. Dr. Cavnar has authored and coedited several books and articles on psychedelic science and therapy.