A Biocultural Regeneration
An Interview with Frédérique Apffel-Marglin

June 4, 2018

Interview by
Joanna Harcourt-Smith

In this episode Frédérique Apffel-Marglin speaks with Joanna about: the rhythmic connection between humans and the cosmos; a paradize for medicinal and psychoactive plants; origin of the Sachamama Center for Biocultural regeneration; rediscovering the pre-Columbian, anthropogenic “terra preta” (black earth); encountering the Sacred in the most visceral way; healed by the icaros (sacred songs); initiation by the Spirits; healing the inner and outer landscape; towards a holistic, cosmocentric worldview; the complexity of the ayahuasca ceremonies; reverse anthropology on “subversive spiritualities”.

Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, PhD, is emerita professor of anthropology at Smith College and director and founder of the Sachamama Center for Biocultural Regeneration in the Peruvian Upper Amazon. She was a research associate at the World Institute for Development Economics Research. She has authored and edited thirteen books and published some sixty articles and book chapters, including The Spirit of Regeneration: Andean Culture Confronting Western Notions of Development and Subversive Spiritualities: How Rituals Enact the World. Sacred Soil: Biochar and the Regeneration of the Earth is her latest book, co-authored with Robert Tindall and David Shearer.

“I Can’t Sit Still”, original music by Evarusnik

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