Otherwise Ayahuasca Expressions. Ritual Reinvention and Social Change in Ayahuasca Rituals
Studia Religiologica December 19, 2025 DOI: 10.4467/20844077sr.25.006.22458 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Ayahuasca ritual practitioners and settings in Brazil and Italy |
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Keywords | Ethnography Social anthropology Aesthetics Omnipresence Anthropology of religion Amazon rainforest Bridging networking Visual anthropology |
| Key findings | Ayahuasca rituals are being reinvented through hybrid, artistic forms that navigate the tension between fixity and flexibility, allowing experiences not permitted in other comparable settings. |
Abstract
This article examines a range of hybrid, artistic ayahuasca ritual formations that I define as otherwise ayahuasca expressions to engage with the question of ritual reinvention. Given the kaleidoscopic multiplicity in the diffusion of the Amazonian psychoactive plant brew ayahuasca, this article argues that ritual forms navigate the tension between fixity and flexibility, and that ritual change involves shifting flows between established ritual structures and more flexible ones. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Brazil and Italy, the article explores specific transformations in ayahuasca ritual structures, bridging ritual studies and the anthropology of the otherwise. Emerging from other religious and ritual forms, the otherwise ayahuasca expressions mediate ritual experiences that are mostly not allowed to exist in other comparable settings through art and experimentation.