Ayahuasca’s Attractions and Distractions
Oxford University Press eBooks June 18, 2014 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199341191.003.0011 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Keywords | Tourism Perspectivism |
| Citations | 13 |
| Key points | Argues that ayahuasca tourism in Puerto Maldonado raises local concerns about the proliferation of unqualified ayahuasqueros, ritual sanitization, and the discounting of malevolence and conflict, while also sparking debates about gender and sexuality. |
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the predicaments of ayahuasca tourism in Puerto Maldonado, a regional Amazonian capital (Peru) and its environs, as a contribution toward understanding how ayahuasca tourism affects the localities in which such encounters take place. Through an analysis of local and global narratives, the chapter engages with Amerindian epistemologies and perspectivism to examine local concerns and interactions between shamans and ayahuasca participants regarding the recent proliferation of ayahuasqueros, the sanitization of rituals, the discounting of the potential role of malevolence and conflict, and the positioning of various intermediaries and authorities. The chapter also explores gender relations between shamans and local and nonlocal participants and the resultant ensuing debates about sex and sexuality as discussed among locals and by larger Internet-based audiences. In these contexts, the adoption and reinvention of ayahuasca rituals is examined as part of the ongoing challenges and experiences that contemporary ayahuasca usage undergoes.