The politics of the welfare state

cultures, some spread gradually, and a few have been almost completely expropriated by Europeans. The great virtue of this book is that both mundane and exotic substances are discussed without ethnocentricity or moral posturing. The combination of detailed context and wide scope should prove thought-provoking to historians, anthropologists, and even medicomoral campaigners, suggesting connections and comparisons across time and space. It is by the exploration of differences and similarities, between the Amerindian use of coca and the English use of tea, for example, that both can be better understood.