Brazilian Literature on Ayahuasca Religions
Fieldwork in Religion November 27, 2008 DOI: 10.1558/firn.v2i3.200 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Ayahuasca Shamanism |
| Keywords | Syncretism linguistics Subject documents Point geometry Epistemology Principal computer security Anthropology Archaeology Library science |
| Key findings | The article provides the most exhaustive survey available of Brazilian university theses on the principal ayahuasca religions, noting that most anthropological works focus on beliefs, symbolic systems, syncretism, shamanism, and healing. |
Abstract
The purpose of this text is to provide an overview of Brazilian literature on the principal ayahuasca religions of Brazil: Santo Daime, the Barquinha and the União do Vegetal. To this end, the article offers the most exhaustive survey available of the university theses that have been produced on the subject, published or not; it also deals with various research projects in progress and a few articles which have been chosen for their particular importance. Beyond that, we shall comment on several works of a non-academic nature produced by adepts of ayahuasca religions. This effort to provide an overview of the whole area is especially important since the majority of the studies about the topic are scattered, many of them have not been published and are difficult to obtain. The article is organized in two parts. The first part comments on the academic works. Generally speaking, the anthropological works deal with the uses of ayahuasca from the point of view of beliefs and symbolic systems, touching particularly on topics such as syncretism, shamanism, and healing.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on ayahuasca, most cited first.