Skip to content

Encounters with Sorcery: An Ethnographer's Account

Evgenia Fotiou

Anthropology & Humanism November 21, 2010 DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1409.2010.01066.x (opens in new tab)

Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Ethnography Peer reviewed
Population Westerners participating in ayahuasca ceremonies in the Peruvian Amazon
Intervention ayahuasca ceremonies
Topics Ayahuasca Shamanism
Keywords Ethnography Faith Psychic Apprenticeship Anthropology Paranormal Aesthetics
Citations 21
Key findings Westerners and Peruvians interpret similar ayahuasca experiences differently due to cultural paradigms, but Western shamanic apprentices can adopt local concepts of sorcery and shamanic warfare.

Abstract

SUMMARY Drawing from data collected during fieldwork from Westerners participating in ayahuasca ceremonies in the Peruvian Amazon, I discuss the ways they make contact with spirits. I particularly focus on the issue of sorcery, illustrating differences in the ways it is perceived by Westerners and Peruvians. I argue that although it is possible that both populations have the same or very similar experiences with ayahuasca, their subjective interpretations and metanarratives are quite different because of the very different cultural paradigms to which they have been exposed. In the Amazonian cultural framework, local ayahuasca users tend to interpret any negative or dark experiences during ceremonies as attacks, by malevolent shamans, hired by other members of their community. The more individualistic Western cultural framework leads Westerners to interpret these experiences as part of their own psychic processes. I found, however, this pattern to be challenged, in that Western shamanic apprentices have integrated the concepts of sorcery and shamanic warfare into their worldview. I discovered that, in many ways, a shamanic apprenticeship for a Westerner involves a radical shift in interpretations of shamanic experience. Certain personal experiences during my fieldwork, which I discuss in this article, challenged my own faith in the dominant anthropological paradigm—that shamanic experiences are culturally defined—as well as my largely secular worldview.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on shamanism, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
"Plantas con madre": plants that teach and guide in the shamanic initiation process in the East-Central Peruvian Amazon. Curanderos, apprentices, and herbalists in East-Central Peru, including Mestizo,... 2011 Qualitative study n = 36
Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca Healers and participants in shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and... 2019 Ethnography with literature review n = 227
The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism Western tourists and indigenous peoples in Iquitos, Peru 2016 Ethnography
Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America Historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin 1992 Ethnographic review and analysis
Working with “La Medicina”: Elements of Healing in Contemporary Ayahuasca Rituals Ayahuasqueros and Western participants in shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru 2012 Ethnography

Citations in the library

Cited by 13

and 8 more in the library

Cites 6

and 1 more in the library

Related reading

Explore topics

Ayahuasca Shamanism