Global Ayahuasca
Stanford University Press eBooks June 11, 2024 DOI: 10.1515/9781503639843 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Shipibo healers in remote Peru, alternative medicine groups in urban Australia, and entrepreneurs and corporate managers in mainland China |
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Citations | 9 |
| Key findings | Ayahuasca visions are not universal but are entangled with local social and economic realities, embodying different attitudes toward capitalist modernity. |
Abstract
Surveying contemporary networks and practices in Peru, Australia, and China, anthropologist Alex K. Gearin explores the visionary marvels, wonders, and diversity of ayahuasca drinking today. Ceremonies of drinking the psychoactive brew ayahuasca have flourished across the planet in recent decades. Emerging from Indigenous roots in the Amazon rainforest, the brew is now envisaged by many as the spiritual gateway to archaic and primordial worlds, with reports of healing, spiritual insight, and awe-inspiring visions placing ayahuasca among the burgeoning field of psychedelic medicines. Astonished and allured by descriptions of ayahuasca experiences, researchers in psychology, anthropology, and philosophy have attempted to define the shared properties of the visions. In this book, Alex Gearin challenges this simplified obsession with universal truth and explores the embodied practices of contemporary ayahuasca drinkers to reveal how the brew has conjured contradictory experiences across the globe. These range from urban disenchantment and capitalist mastery to competitive sorcery and ecological harmony, wherein the plant-induced visions embody different attitudes towards capitalist modernity. Based upon ethnographic research among Shipibo healers in remote Peru, alternative medicine groups in urban Australia, and entrepreneurs and corporate managers in mainland China, Global Ayahuasca examines how the wondrous visions of ayahuasca are entangled within the social and economic realities that they illuminate, revealing different tensions, fears, and hopes of everyday modern life.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on ayahuasca, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The antipodes Of the mind Indigenous people, shamans, members of different religious sects using Ayahuasca, and... | 2002 | Qualitative study | |
| Drug Tourism or Spiritual Healing? Ayahuasca Seekers in Amazonia Westerners participating in an ayahuasca retreat in Amazonia | 2005 | Qualitative study | |
| Therapeutic Effects of Ritual Ayahuasca Use in the Treatment of Substance Dependence—Qualitative Results Therapists, expert researchers, and individuals who underwent ayahuasca-assisted... | 2014 | Qualitative study | n = 29 |
| Nourishing the Spirit: Exploratory Research on Ayahuasca Experiences along the Continuum of Recovery from Eating Disorders Individuals previously diagnosed with an eating disorder | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 16 |
| Exploring ayahuasca‐assisted therapy for addiction: A qualitative analysis of preliminary findings among an Indigenous community in Canada Indigenous adults in Canada who participated in ayahuasca-assisted ceremonial retreats | 2019 | Qualitative study | n = 11 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 9
- Psychedelic Therapy as Form of Life Neuroethics March 16, 2024
- Anthropology of Psychedelics Anthropology of Consciousness April 20, 2025
- Psychedelic assemblages Critique of Anthropology September 1, 2025
- Reassessing ayahuasca regulation in Brazil: strategic framing and cumulative gains Drugs Education Prevention and Policy October 14, 2024
- Psychedelic therapy and cultural humility Translational Psychiatry February 27, 2026
and 4 more in the library