Abstract This article critically addresses one of the most pressing questions of the current moment of the psychedelic wave: Is mainstreaming psychedelics a good thing? Our aim is not to provide a simple “yes” or “no” as an answer but to explore the tensions, controversies, disparities, inequalities, and risks that have risen in the last decades. We discuss the limits of psychedelic science as...
This article analyzes the role of anthropology in legitimizing and regulating the use of ayahuasca, highlighting the relationship between traditional knowledge, science and public policy. Since the mid-20th century, the social sciences have been exploring the cultural and social dimensions of the use of psychoactive substances, including ayahuasca. In Brazil, anthropological production was...
Em fevereiro de 2023, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) divulgou um documento para a equipe jurídica que representa a Church of the Eagle and the Condor (“CEC”). Essa divulgação ocorreu dois anos depois que a igreja, em conjunto com o Chacruna Institute, enviou duas solicitações baseadas na lei de liberdade de informação [Freedom Of Information Act] à DEA e ao Departamento de Justiça...
Abstract This annotated bibliography comprises 49 texts concerning psilocybin mushroom practices developed by Indigenous peoples. The books and articles have been selected for their academic rigor, relevance, and historical significance, and to foreground overlooked research and subject matter. This includes research on a plurality of contemporary practices and evidence of historical uses, from...
Abstract On February 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released a document to the legal team representing the Church of the Eagle and the Condor (“CEC”). This disclosure came two years after the church, in conjunction with Chacruna Institute, submitted two FOIA requests to the DEA and the Department of Justice requesting all records pertaining to ayahuasca. This report, titled...
This chapter analyzes the environmental legislation on the use of ayahuasca in Brazil and its implications for Indigenous peoples. Although the first initiatives to regulate the use of ayahuasca date from the second half of the 1980s, the first environmental policies emerged only in the late 1990s. Thus, this work analyzes the state legislation of Acre and Rondônia that sought to regulate the...
In this interview, performed in 2018, anthropologist and ayahuasca researcher Dr. Bia Labate speaks with Dr. José Carlos Bouso, who is a clinical psychologist with a PhD in pharmacology and is Scientific Director of the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research & Service (ICEERS). Dr. Bouso speaks on his first experience being a defense expert witness on ayahuasca in Spain...
This chapter aims to investigate the genealogy of the ayahuasca cultural heritage registration process in Brazil. Through a historical and comparative perspective, we identify the main players involved, as well as the conflicts, disputes, and alliances that form this scenario. First, we describe briefly the cultural heritage registration process of various psychoactive plants in Latin America....
This article reflects upon the conception and development of a set of guidelines for the awareness of sexual abuse in ayahuasca settings, an assortment of scenarios that take place in local and global settings entailing the use of a psychedelic brew known for producing visionary and purgative effects composed of Amazonian Banisteriopsis caapi (ayahuasca vine) commonly combined with the leaves...
This paper presents a reflection on the implications of the use and trade of peyote (Lophophora williamsii) and the challenges associated with its conservation in a religious and binational (Mexico and the United States) context. Our main focus is on a controversy raised by the Native American Church before the Mexican government, via an application submitted to the General Directorate of...
This chapter undertakes an unorthodox approach and investigate dietary and behavioural restrictions in the practice of Western ayahuasca drinking in comparison to indigenous Amazonian practices of dieting often believed to be the source of the "Western ayahuasca dieta." Combining readings of Amazonian ethnography with the authors' ethnographic research in neoshamanic contexts of ayahuasca...
Born during the twentieth century, Barquinha, Santo Daime, and the União do Vegetal, known as the Brazilian ayahuasca religions, were circumscribed to the northern region of Brazil at least until the beginning of the 70's. Since then, Santo Daime and the União do Vegetal have expanded significantly, each one in its own way, reaching all the regions of the country, crossing the Brazilian borders...
Recently, installations of the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, with different degrees of Indian participation, have been presented in art museums in Bilbao, São Paulo, and Vienna. The beautiful tissue installations achieved part of their force from their references to ayahuasca healing by the Huni Kuin (Kaxinawa) people of the State of Acre in Brazil. It is interesting to note the convergence...
"Nascidas durante o século XX, a Barquinha, o Santo Daime e a União do Vegetal, conhecidas como as religiões ayahuasqueiras brasileiras, se mantiveram circunscritas à região norte do Brasil pelo menos até o início dos anos de 1970. Desde então, o Santo Daime e a União do Vegetal têm se expandido significativamente, cada qual à sua maneira, alcançando todas as regiões do país, cruzando as...
Resumo Recentemente, trabalhos de Ernesto Neto ganharam destaque em museus de arte em Bilbao, São Paulo e Viena. Tiravam parte de sua força do fato de remeterem a rituais de cura com ayahuasca dos Huni Kuin (Kaxinawa). Observa-se certo paralelismo entre essa conquista de espaço para a presença indígena no sistema das artes e a chegada dos índios ao circuito urbano da ayahuasca. A circulação de...
Foreword by Professor Andrew Dawson, Lancaster University Beatriz Labate, Edward MacRae and Sandra Goulart (Casper Libero College, Brazil) - Brazilian Ayahuasca Religions in perspective 1. Mariana C. Pantoja (Federal University of Acre, Brazil) and Osmildo da Silva Conceicao (Kuntanawa tribal leader) - The use of ayahuasca among rubber tappers of the Alto Jurua 2. Arneide Cemin (Federal...
This chapter presents a series of reflections on the therapeutic potential of the ritual use of ayahuasca in the treatment and handling of substance dependence problems. It reviews anthropological and psychiatric data on the ritual use of ayahuasca for 'healing' dependence in psychotherapeutic centers as well as in ayahuasca religions. The chapter discusses methodological, ethical and political...
This article offers critical sociological and philosophical reflections on ayahuasca and other psychedelics as objects of research in medicine, health and human sciences. It situates 21st century scientific inquiry on ayahuasca in the broader context of how early modern European social trends and intellectual pursuits translated into new forms of empiricism and experimental philosophy, but...
Desde a metade da última década, em grandes cidades do Brasil, começou a se difundir o uso da secreção da perereca Phyllomedusa bicolor. Um pouco mais tarde, partir da segunda década deste século, tornou-se possível alcançar informações sobre tal difusão em cidades europeias e norte-americanas. Tradicionalmente usada como revigorante e estimulante para caça por grupos indígenas do sudoeste...
Este artigo faz uma reflexão sobre a entrada dos índios no circuito urbano da ayahuasca. Descrevemos o processo de contato de diferentes populações indígenas, tais como os Kaxinawa, Guarani, Apurinã, Kuntanawa e Yawanawa com as religiões ayahuasqueiras e os neoayahuasqueiros. Observamos a reivindicação de alguns destes grupos de que teriam sido os responsáveis por introduzir a...
Este artigo analisa os processos de expansão da religião ayahuasqueira do Santo Daime da Amazônia para o mundo. O crescimento e internacionalização daimistas são explicados em função de suas características estruturais, a psicoatividade e miscibilidade. Essa expansão é contextualizada dentro do movimento diaspórico das religiões do sul global, isto é, responde ao crescente papel do Brasil e da...
Abstract This chapter charts the expansion, diversification, and internationalization of Peruvian vegetalismo. Outsiders traveling to Peru in search of ayahuasca, gringos who themselves became curanderos, and Peruvian ayahuasqueros who travel to hold workshops for urban middle-class clients abroad are considered. The study identifies contours of transnational networks and the circuits that...
Abstract The introduction provides an overview of the expansion of ayahuasca shamanism, and places it in the context of its interactions with Western therapies and the New Age movement. It also contemplates the role of shamanism as a mediator in contemporary indigenous ethnic relationships. The introduction reviews the existing field of research and offer a comment that gives context and...
Abstract The B razilian ayahuasca religions, S anto D aime, B arquinha, and U nião do V egetal, have increasingly sought formal recognition by government agencies in B razil 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...