Teorías, Actores y Redes de la Ayahuasca
Ilha Revista de Antropologia December 3, 2014 DOI: 10.5007/2175-8034.2014v16n1p7 (opens in new tab) via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThe use of ayahuasca, even in its original indigenous context, is not a fixed body of traditional knowledge but rather a dynamic network of human and non-human actors—including spirits, biochemical substances, specialists, clients, and theories—that transform the practice as they perform and disseminate it. This paper surveys the diversity of ayahuasca's composition, uses, and agents across the Amazon, describing it in terms similar to modern science and technology.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Keywords | Humanities Amazon rainforest Psychology Sociology |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key finding | Proposes that ayahuasca is best understood as a network of human and nonhuman actors that transforms the practice as it spreads, rather than as a bounded traditional knowledge system. |
Abstract
The use of ayahuasca, even in its original indigenous ground, cannot be described as a culturally variable but culturally bounded body of traditional knowledge, ritual or shamanic technic.This paper describes it rather in the way in which modern science and technology are described, as a network of human and non human actors (spirits, bio-chemical substances, specialists, clients, theories on its principles and goals) that transform it as long as they perform and disseminate it.The paper is a tentative survey on the diversity of composition, uses and agents of ayahuasca throughout the Amazon.