Smoky Boundaries, Permeable Selves: Exploring the Self in Relationship with the Amazonian Jungle Tobacco, Mapacho
Dena Sharrock
Anthropological Forum January 3, 2018 DOI: 10.1080/00664677.2018.1419934 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Jungle Amazonian Ethnology Amazon rainforest Folk medicine Traditional medicine Anthropology Environmental ethics Ecology |
| Citations | 6 |
| Key points | Argues that Mapacho smoke blurs Western conceptual boundaries between self, shaman, and plant medicine, challenging distinctions typically drawn by Westerners. |
Abstract
As more Westerners travel to the Amazon jungle to seek healing through the increasingly popular plant medicine, ayahuasca, they are exposed to an environment pervaded by the use of tobacco smoke. Mapacho is the name of the potent jungle tobacco that is central to the shamanic practices of Amazonian plant medicine healing, regarded locally not as a pathogen but rather as a potent ally: a spirit that can be co-opted as a purifier, healer, protector and teacher. In order to render these functions available to patients, Mapacho must be smoked, its efficacy, along with that of the shaman, activated through the absorption of each into the other. By means of this relationship, Mapacho smoke pervades culturally recognised boundaries of the Western Self, simultaneously permeating both the internal and external realms that constitute the healing environment. In this paper, I explore the relationship between Mapacho, Peruvian Shipibo shamans and Western patients, suggesting that the boundaries that are often conceived by Westerners to distinguish each from the other may well be as smoky as the medicine practices they engage in.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Amazonian Medicine and the Psychedelic Revival: Considering the “Dieta” Frontiers in Pharmacology May 28, 2021
- Indigenous-Amazonian Traditional Medicine’s Usage of the Tobacco Plant: A Transdisciplinary Ethnopsychological Mixed-Methods Case Study Plants January 11, 2023
- Altered States of Consciousness During Ceremonial San Pedro Use International Journal for the Psychology of Religion December 5, 2022
- Consume and Transform: Perfumes and healing in vegetalista healing practices of the Peruvian Amazon Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2022
Cites 3
- The Therapeutic Potentials of Ayahuasca: Possible Effects against Various Diseases of Civilization. Frontiers in Pharmacology March 2, 2016
- The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2003
- Pharmacokinetics of Hoasca alkaloids in healthy humans. Journal of Ethnopharmacology June 1, 1999