Social Compass
July 18, 2017
Esther Jean Langdon
9 citations
Translations of the native notion of shamanic agency of the Siona Indians of Colombia is explored throughout different historical and social contexts. The polysemic concept rau is central to the shaman’s capacity for establishing relations of exchange and negotiation with humans and non-humans. As the embodiment of his power, it fits within a semantic field that conveys the waxing and waning of...
Anthropology of Consciousness
September 1, 2016
Esther Jean Langdon
14 citations
Abstract This article outlines the transformations of yajé shamanism among the Siona Indians of the Northwest Amazon Basin of Colombia. The shaman's role and the political and sacred use of yajé rituals have changed since colonial times and can be seen as a result of adaptive strategies for survival. This study examines the factors that have contributed to the current revitalization due to...
Revista de Antropologia
December 12, 2013
Esther Jean Langdon
7 citations
A performance das narrativas entre os índios Siona manifestam a função estética, apontada por Richard Bauman e outros, por meio da recriação da experiência das viagens xamânicas e da transformação de perspectiva que faz parte dos ritos com o uso do enteógeno yajé (ayahuasca). Nestas viagens, a perspectiva cotidiana é substituída por uma outra, que permite à plateia conhecer os seres que habitam...
Revista Colombiana de Antropología
June 13, 2013
Esther Jean Langdon
8 citations
Among the Siona indians, shamanic flights and encounters in the invisible world are recreated through oral performance. With the objective of exploring the relation between narrative performance, the creation of extraordinary experience and shamanic perspective, the article analyzes a narrative that tells of the visit to the house of the jaguars by a young apprentice and his master-shaman. This...
Revista Colombiana de Antropología
June 13, 2013
Isabel Santana de Rose, Esther Jean Langdon
5 citations
This paper examines the adoption of ayahuasca and other ritual practices in the Guarani village Mbiguaçu (Santa Catarina, Brazil). This adoption is the productof the dialogue that has emerged in the ritual performances shared with non-Indian groups and the circulation of concepts and discourses present in Brazilian public policies and alternative spiritual movements. The actors involved in the...
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions
April 13, 2012
Esther Jean Langdon, Isabel Santana de Rose
17 citations
This paper is a reflection on the ritual incorporation of ayahuasca, an Amazonian psychoactive ritual substance, by members of a Guarani Indian village on the Atlantic coast of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Their shamanic leaders have adapted the use of this beverage into their ritual practices and recognize it as part of their culture and tradition. This process of appropriation is a...