Review: Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing, by Marc G. Blainey

Summary

The anthropologist's participant-observer approach effectively captures the intimate narratives of individuals involved in New Age and alternative spiritual movements. While there are challenges in accurately representing her subjects' viewpoints, the depth of engagement adds a unique interpretive layer to the analysis that is often missing in existing social science literature on these topics.

Study at a glance

Abstract

lives, and the anthropologist's interpretive context in which she sets these intersecting life stories.While being part of the story does present pitfalls, and while her analysis sometimes departs from the actual points her subjects are trying to make, Crockford is able to convince the reader that her participant-observer strategy works.There is an intimacy to her research that, not surprisingly, provides an added interpretive dimension not typically found in the social science literature on contemporary New Age and alternative spiritual movements.

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