Thursday, September 4, 2008

Huichols, Yaquis, and Castaneda

"Of course, Castaneda's book was not about Huichols (as it turned out, it was not about Yaquis, either, but that is another story)."

"Nearly two decades after psychologist Richard de Mille debunked Castaneda's books in two carefully researched and reasoned studies (1976, 1980/1990), as fiction, and not a new kind of ethnography...."

- page 508, Conclusion: Peyote Pilgrims and Don Juan Seekers: Huichol Indians in a Multicultural World by Peter T. Furst and Stacy B. Schaeffer in People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Religion, & Survival (1996) edited by Stacy B. Schaeffer and Peter T. Furst

A huge concession on the part of professional anthropologists that UCLA granted a Ph.D. in anthropology to Castaneda based on works of fiction and not anthropology.

Some modern anthropologists are embarrassed by the egregious breach of ethics by Castaneda and UCLA.

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