The study and documentation of folk people%u2019s classification and use of the biological world has experienced phenomenal growth during the last quarter century. However, some important gaps remain, notably the folk knowledge and valuation of fungi, or ethnomycology. Although fungi are considered to be one of the most abundant and diverse groups of organisms on the planet, with an estimated 1.5 million species existing in the world, surprisingly the literature on ethnomycology is extremely thin. A recent bibliographic search focusing on empirical descriptive accounts of local knowledge and traditional human use of fungi among Native American societies turned up a meager handful of scientific papers. Most of the systematic research on this topic pertains to Central America or North America. The shamanic use of fungi has been reported on every continent, which may explain why much of the ethnomycological literature worldwide is concerned primarily with the ritual and religious uses of fungi. Furthermore, this focus may be due to the common association of this group of organisms with hallucinogenic experiences, as more than 95 species are believed to have psychoactive properties.