Para una historia crítica del yajé y el ayahuasca: la hipótesis de Gow a la luz del yajé
Jangwa Pana January 1, 2024 Pedro Musalem Nazar
From a historical perspective, this article compares two forms of traditional Amazonian medicine: the yajé cult and the use of ayahuasca within vegetalismo and the surrounding regional indigenous shamanism. Using Peter Gow's ideas about ayahuasca as a historical, social, and cultural form, a comparative approach makes similarities and differences between yajé and ayahuasca understandable; both terms indicate not only the same substance but also two forms of social practice developed in two contiguous areas of the northwestern Amazon. Colonial processes of the Catholic mission and rubber exploitation in which these shamanic traditions developed are described and contrasted. An ethnographic analysis complements the contrast.