Primitivist medicine and capitalist anxieties in ayahuasca tourism Peru
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute February 24, 2022 DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.13705 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Shipibo healers and ayahuasca tourists at a tourism centre in Peru |
| Topics | Anxiety Ayahuasca |
| Keywords | Tourism Aesthetics Capital architecture Poverty Power physics |
| Citations | 12 |
| Key points | Argues that ayahuasca tourism creates a paradoxical dynamic where guests purge desires for capital accumulation that healers achieve through curing them, while sorcery among healers adapts to economic scarcity. |
Abstract
Abstract Analysing healing practices at an ayahuasca tourism centre in Peru, this article illustrates how Shipibo practices of curing and sorcery have adapted to the demands of international clients searching for primitivist healing experiences. At the core of this adaption is the thorny issue of occult power and its relation to capital accumulation. Sorcery here does not serve clients but is manifest among healers working to capitalize on the guests’ primitivist rejections of modern life while operating in environments of economic scarcity and ambient poverty. Ayahuasca tourists do not request and generally do not believe in sorcery, but their very presence generates and negates the local moral economy of sorcery in novel ways. The article explores a paradoxical aspect of ayahuasca tourism wherein guests purge similar anxious desires for capital accumulation that healers achieve when curing them.