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jazzy_daveJeremy Narby "The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge" (Phoenix)
Narby's (prudent) decision to frame his book as a narrative of personal discovery creates an apparent kinship with the "thick description" ethnography of Geertz, but one of his indictments of the anthropological field is that its texts (particularly those of the structuralists) tend to be arcane and tedious. A graver accusation, and probably one of more general application, is that anthropologists are involved in a work of cultural and intellectual expropriation, plundering the knowledge of societies they study, but attempting to "preserve" indigenous peoples by insulating them from the ability to criticize or benefit from Western knowledge. He also insists that the method and products of comparative religion (after the fashion of Eliade) deserve rehabilitation in the face of anthropological critiques.
Although rooted in Narby's experiences doing anthropological fieldwork among the Ashaninca people of the Amazon basin, the thesis of this book was developed through a cultivated mixture of academic textual research and "defocusing" non-rational contemplation. Wrestling with such difficulties as the mechanisms of hallucination and the nature of spirits that provide indigenous people with sophisticated botanical knowledge, he began to understand metaphoric expression and interpretation as necessary to his work. The section that describes the development of his method culminates in a fusion of his abstracted awareness with his concrete surroundings: "The path I was following led to a crystalline cascade gushing out a limestone cliff. The water was sparkling and tasted like champagne". I read this partly to describe the exhilaration of his emergence from the rational academic consensus, and also as a metaphor for DNA (the "crystalline cascade") as the destination of the intellectual "path [he] was following."
After much provocative exploration of molecular biology and comparative shamanism (for which his sources are all of impeccable credibility), Narby intimates that it may be a function of the "junk DNA," which comprises the vast majority of known bio-genetic material, to communicate and coordinate through the emission and reception of electromagnetic signals. Consequently, the entire biosphere may possess a single, ramified consciousness -- the Cosmic Serpent of the title -- which is accessible in whole or part to individual humans with the use of shamanic techniques.
He takes a serious look at how neurogenetic consciousness informs awareness, knowledge, symbolism and culture. His comparison of the ancient cosmic serpent myths to the genetic situation in every living cell reveals the immortal biomolecular wizard behind the curtain of everyday life. His anthropological study, ayahuasca experience and scientific speculations weave a tale of shamans who bring their consciousness down to molecular levels with sophisticated neurotransmitter potions in order to perceive information contained in the coherent visible light emitted by DNA."
I hugely enjoyed this book, despite my initial misgivings before i read it.
Narby's (prudent) decision to frame his book as a narrative of personal discovery creates an apparent kinship with the "thick description" ethnography of Geertz, but one of his indictments of the anthropological field is that its texts (particularly those of the structuralists) tend to be arcane and tedious. A graver accusation, and probably one of more general application, is that anthropologists are involved in a work of cultural and intellectual expropriation, plundering the knowledge of societies they study, but attempting to "preserve" indigenous peoples by insulating them from the ability to criticize or benefit from Western knowledge. He also insists that the method and products of comparative religion (after the fashion of Eliade) deserve rehabilitation in the face of anthropological critiques.
Although rooted in Narby's experiences doing anthropological fieldwork among the Ashaninca people of the Amazon basin, the thesis of this book was developed through a cultivated mixture of academic textual research and "defocusing" non-rational contemplation. Wrestling with such difficulties as the mechanisms of hallucination and the nature of spirits that provide indigenous people with sophisticated botanical knowledge, he began to understand metaphoric expression and interpretation as necessary to his work. The section that describes the development of his method culminates in a fusion of his abstracted awareness with his concrete surroundings: "The path I was following led to a crystalline cascade gushing out a limestone cliff. The water was sparkling and tasted like champagne". I read this partly to describe the exhilaration of his emergence from the rational academic consensus, and also as a metaphor for DNA (the "crystalline cascade") as the destination of the intellectual "path [he] was following."
After much provocative exploration of molecular biology and comparative shamanism (for which his sources are all of impeccable credibility), Narby intimates that it may be a function of the "junk DNA," which comprises the vast majority of known bio-genetic material, to communicate and coordinate through the emission and reception of electromagnetic signals. Consequently, the entire biosphere may possess a single, ramified consciousness -- the Cosmic Serpent of the title -- which is accessible in whole or part to individual humans with the use of shamanic techniques.
He takes a serious look at how neurogenetic consciousness informs awareness, knowledge, symbolism and culture. His comparison of the ancient cosmic serpent myths to the genetic situation in every living cell reveals the immortal biomolecular wizard behind the curtain of everyday life. His anthropological study, ayahuasca experience and scientific speculations weave a tale of shamans who bring their consciousness down to molecular levels with sophisticated neurotransmitter potions in order to perceive information contained in the coherent visible light emitted by DNA."
I hugely enjoyed this book, despite my initial misgivings before i read it.
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Date: 2015-06-24 12:57 am (UTC)Hugs, Jon
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Date: 2015-06-24 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-24 05:30 am (UTC)I then realized i had missed out a piece form my handwritten thoughts when i posted this review , that i was referring to Clifford Geertz whose Interpretation of Cultures" i read back in the nineties. That was undeniably thick and stodgy to read.
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Date: 2015-06-27 03:08 am (UTC)