A critical review of the literature on the diaspora of Brazilian ayahuasca religions (original) (raw)
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The World Ayahuasca Diaspora: Reinventions and controversies
This book investigates how certain alternative global religious groups, shamanic tourism industries, and recreational drug milieus grounded in the consumption of the traditionally Amazonian psychoactive drink ayahuasca embody various challenges associated with modern societies. During its expansion from the Amazon jungle to Western societies, ayahuasca use has encountered different legal and cultural responses in the destination countries. This encounter is discussed in the book in terms of how it discloses contemporary controversies regarding religious ambivalence in modern societies, and how disparate and competing ontological and epistemological discourse on ayahuasca use has emerged among ayahuasca drinkers and between them and the state. The role of science in the confrontations between ayahuasca drinkers and the law is also contemplated. The chapters include ethnographic investigations of ritual practice, transnational religious ideology, the politics of healing, and the invention of tradition. Authors explore symbolic effects of a “bureaucratization of enchantment” in religious practice, and the “sanitizing” of indigenous rituals for tourist markets. Larger questions on the global economics of ayahuasca in terms of notions of commodification and the categories of sacred and profane are also addressed. This unique book explores classic and contemporary issues in social science and the humanities, providing rich material on the bourgeoning expansion of ayahuasca use around the globe.
The Expanding World Ayahuasca Diaspora: Appropriation, Integration and Legislation
This book investigates how certain alternative global religious groups, shamanic tourism industries, and recreational drug milieus grounded in the consumption of the traditionally Amazonian psychoactive drink ayahuasca embody various challenges associated with modern societies. During its expansion from the Amazon jungle to Western societies, ayahuasca use has encountered different legal and cultural responses in the destination countries. This encounter is discussed in the book in terms of how it discloses contemporary controversies regarding religious ambivalence in modern societies, and how disparate and competing ontological and epistemological discourse on ayahuasca use has emerged among ayahuasca drinkers and between them and the state. The role of science in the confrontations between ayahuasca drinkers and the law is also contemplated. The chapters include ethnographic investigations of ritual practice, transnational religious ideology, the politics of healing, and the invention of tradition. Authors explore symbolic effects of a “bureaucratization of enchantment” in religious practice, and the “sanitizing” of indigenous rituals for tourist markets. Larger questions on the global economics of ayahuasca in terms of notions of commodification and the categories of sacred and profane are also addressed. This unique book explores classic and contemporary issues in social science and the humanities, providing rich material on the bourgeoning expansion of ayahuasca use around the globe.
This article presents a reflection on the entrance of indigenous peoples into the urban ayahuasca circuit. We describe the process of contact of different indigenous populations, such as the Kaxinawa, Guarani, Apurinã, Kuntanawa and Yawanawa with the Brazilian religions and the neo-ayahuasqueros. We observe the claim of some of these groups that they had been responsible for presenting ayahuasca to Mestre Irineu, the founder of Santo Daime. We consider the penetration of the discourse of some of these actors in the public debate, with the intention of understanding their demand for the participation of indigenous peoples in the process of recognizing ayahuasca as immaterial cultural heritage by the Institute of National Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN). We analyze the way in which the entrance of these indigenous peoples into this circuit, or the participation of non-indigenous peoples in ceremonies in Acrean indigenous villages, are reconfiguring the field of Brazilian ayahuasca religiosity.
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew that has origins in the indigenous traditions of the Amazon regions of South America. It is known as a healing medicine that is deeply embedded in shamanic practices and spiritual beliefs. In the last few decades the use of Ayahuasca has developed outside of the Amazon and has since become a transnational phenomenon, crossing boundaries between Western and non-Western healing contexts. This increasing popularity has attracted a multidisciplinary array of research interests, of which anthropology has significantly contributed. It has become evident for those engaged in Ayahuasca research that Western epistemology is limited by its longstanding constraints of objectivism, rationalism and scientific materialism. In this thesis, I provide an analysis of Ayahuasca to outline the spiritual centrality of its use and appropriation, especially in context of healing beliefs and practices. I apply the concept of neo-enchantment to outline how the globalization of Ayahuasca challenges the hegemony of rationalism and secularism in industrialized society. This is achieved through reference to recent Ayahuasca research and analysis that seek to overcome limitations of Western epistemology, through dialectically synthesizing scientific and indigenous paradigms of healing and knowledge. While focused on Ayahuasca research, the outcomes of this thesis relates to broader issues in the social sciences and beyond, and raises some important questions for future research.
"Ayahuasca Use Throughout Time: A Literature Review"
University of Guelph Atrium, 2020
Ayahuasca is the most common term which refers to a plant based hallucinogenic beverage made with the jungle lianas Banisteriopsis Caapi (Schultes 1972:35; De Rios 1984:8). Through a review of this literature, my project evaluates how the changing geographic boundaries, cultural context and worldview of ayahuasca users alter the intention and meaning of ayahuasca usage. This paper provides a contextual overview of hallucinogenic plants in Central and South America, key themes in shamanism and Amazonian shamanism. Local Amazonian ayahuasca use in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, Brazilian ayahuasca religions, neo-shamanism and ayahuasca drug tourism literature is presented and analyzed drawing upon Van Gennep’s (1960) “Rites de Passage”, Victor Turner’s (1970) “Liminality”, Shaw and Stewart’s (2003) problematization of syncretism and Grimes’ (1992) characteristics of the reinvention of ritual. Literature regarding therapeutic/medicinal ayahuasca use and ayahuasca legality is also presented. I argue recent and contemporary ayahuasca use may utilize traditional elements of Amazonian shamanism, though depart from Indigenous cosmology as ideologies governing it’s use become syncretic, institutionalized and influenced by Western individualism.
The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism
Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic plant mixture used in a ceremonial context throughout western Amazonia, and its use has expanded globally in recent decades. As part of this expansion, ayahuasca has become popular among westerners who travel to the Peruvian Amazon in increasing numbers to experience its reportedly healing and transformative effects. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in and around the area of Iquitos, Peru, the epicenter of ayahuasca tourism, this paper focuses on some of the problematic aspects of western engagement with indigenous spiritual traditions. This engagement is usually based on idealized and romanticized notions of indigenous shamanism and an inability to digest its less palatable aspects, such as sorcery. Through ethnographic examples and ethnohistorical evidence, I show that the romanticization indigenous peoples is not benign. In fact, this one-sided romantic image hides the complexity of indigenous peoples' situations by erasing the injustices that they have experienced and continue to experience. I propose a more holistic approach to ayahuasca shamanism that views indigenous peoples not living in a fictitious harmony with nature but as people embedded in larger struggles and facing important challenges not the least of which is the recent commercialization of indigenous spirituality.
Ayahuasca Religions in Acre: Cultural Heritage in the Brazilian Borderlands
The Brazilian ayahuasca religions, Santo Daime, Barquinha, and União do Vegetal, have increasingly sought formal recognition by government agencies in Brazil and other countries to guarantee their legal use of ayahuasca, which contains DMT, a substance that is listed. This article focuses on new alliances and rifts that have emerged between and among different ayahuasca groups as they have sought and in some cases achieved formal recognition and legitimacy at the state and national levels in Brazil and abroad. It presents a historical overview of the origin of the main ayahuasca religions, and their connections to the Amazon region and the state of Acre in particular, where the political environment has facilitated petitions seeking the elevation of ayahuasca as cultural and historical heritage in Acre and Brazil. This process has resulted in the active selection of certain symbolic, cultural, and historical elements and subtle changes in the ways various ayahuasca groups represent themselves in the public sphere. It also resulted in the reconfiguration of political alliances and a recasting of the historical facts regarding origins. The article reflects on notions of origin, place, authenticity, and tradition throughout the ongoing transformation of ayahuasca from “dangerous drug” to state and national heritage.