Studia Religiologica
December 19, 2025
Piera Talin
This article examines a range of hybrid, artistic ayahuasca ritual formations that I define as otherwise ayahuasca expressions to engage with the question of ritual reinvention. Given the kaleidoscopic multiplicity in the diffusion of the Amazonian psychoactive plant brew ayahuasca, this article argues that ritual forms navigate the tension between fixity and flexibility, and that ritual change...
Quotidiana
December 17, 2025
Piera Talin
This article examines how ayahuasca religions in Italy have reconfigured their ritual practices following the 2022 legal ban on ayahuasca, including replacing the brew with water and creating new forms of religious travel. The Amazonian psychoactive brew ayahuasca, traditionally used in Indigenous rituals and healing, is at the centre of transnational religions that have spread globally....
Vibrant Virtual Brazilian Anthropology
2025
Pietro Benedito, Isabel Santana de Rose, Emilia Sanabria et al.
Abstract With the rapid advancement of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) trials, psychedelic clinics are set to become a tangible reality in the near future. Questions abound concerning the therapeutic modalities that will be adopted, the human and material infrastructures that will enable the delivery of this novel form of healthcare, and their funding model - which will have direct...
Proposing Empirical Research
August 21, 2019
Piera Talin, Emilia Sanabria
A range of studies has demonstrated the efficacy of the psychoactive Amazonian brew ayahuasca in addressing substance addiction. These have revealed that physiological and psychological mechanisms are deeply enmeshed. This study will focus on how interactive ritual contexts support the healing effort. This will be an ethnographically grounded, qualitative analysis of addiction-recovery...
International Journal of Drug Policy
April 19, 2017
Piera Talin, Emilia Sanabria
101 citations
The ritual use of ayahuasca stands in strong contrast to hegemonic understandings of addiction, paving new ground between the overstated difference between community and pharmacological interventions. The article concludes that fluid, adaptable forms of caregiving play a key role in the success of addiction recovery and that feeling part of a community has an important therapeutic potential.