Many of the essays are concerned with the role of shamanism in Tukanoan society: initiation practices, the rock crystal (the shamans' principle power tool), which provides the model for many aspects of the shaministic world-view; and their curing spells, which show the Tukanoan concepts of illness and its cure. Other essays describe their concepts of universal energies and the ways they can be balanced, and the ecological dimensions of their world-view.