Meet reseacher Robin Rood in Australia

Dr Robin Rodd. Born in Ottawa, 1975. Between 1999-2001, conducted 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork with the Piaroa ethnic group of Venezuela, including a shamanic apprenticeship. Examined the psychocultural and phenomenological bases of Piaroa shamanic practices, how yopo (Anadenanthera sp.)snuff and Banisteriopsis caapi are used to develop knowledge of social and psychological dynamics deployed in healing, divination and sorcery. Received a PhD with Distinction from the University of Western Australia in 2005 for a thesis entitled ‘The biocultural ecology of Piaroa Shamanic Practice’. Currently Lecturer in Anthropology at James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. Research interests include ethnopharmacology, yopo, Ayahuasca, shamanism, neuro-anthropology, psychological and medical anthropology. He can be contacted at robin.rodd@jcu.edu.au.

Rodd, Robin. 2010. Yopo visions: The biocultural ecology of Piaroa shamanic practice. New York: Edwin Mellen Press. 

Rodd, Robin. 2008. Reassessing the cultural and psychopharmacological significance of Banisteriopsis caapi: Preparation, classification and use among the Piaroa of southern Venezuela. Journal of psychoactive drugs. 40(3):301-7.

Rodd, Robin. 2006. Piaroa sorcery and the navigation of negative affect: To be aware, to turn away. Anthropology of consciousness. 17(1):35-64.

Rodd, Robin. 2003. Märipa: To know everything. The experience of power as knowledge derived from the integrative mode of consciousness. Anthropology of consciousness. 14(2):60-88.

Rodd, Robin. 2002. Snuff synergy: Preparation, use and pharmacology of yopo and Banisteriopsis caapi among the Piaroa of Southern Venezuela. Journal of psychoactive drugs 34(3):273-280.

Rodd, Robin. 2002. Märipa teui: A radical empiricist approach to Piaroa shamanic training and initiation. Antropológica 96:53-82.