Shamanism and Psychoactives: Theory, Practice and Paradoxes of a Field Study in India
Stefano Beggiora
Psychoactives April 1, 2025 DOI: 10.3390/psychoactives4020008 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Indigenous peoples of India |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key findings | The production of alcoholic beverages is a fundamental trait of Indigenous cultures in India, and the discourse around these sacred substances is key to understanding Indigenous ontology and traditional sustainability. |
Abstract
Since its origins, the debate on the interaction between religions and psychoactives has been strongly influenced, both positively and negatively, by prejudices, policies, fashions and trends that had little to do with scientific research. Stigma and exaltation in different historical moments have equally characterized the study of the presence and use of so-called entheogens in the different declinations of the shamanic phenomenon around the world. This article attempts to shed light on the various trends regarding the state of the art, providing new epistemological elements on the basis of an ethnographic investigation among some Indigenous peoples of India. The production of alcoholic beverages (fermented and distilled, but sometimes in combination with other psychoactive or hallucinogens among the starters) is a fundamental trait of the aboriginal (ādivāsī) cultures of the Indian subcontinent. Not immune from an attempt at political instrumentalization, which occurred both in the colonial period and in the contemporary era, the discourse on the natural production of these sacred substances is today the key to understanding indigenous ontology and its traditional idea of sustainability. Far beyond the mere documentation of the induction of altered states of consciousness, this investigation involves the discovery of local pharmacopeias, as well as principles of fermentation and food preservation.
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
Cites 7
- Psychedelics: Where we are now, why we got here, what we must do Neuropharmacology February 21, 2018
- Brain changes during a shamanic trance: Altered modes of consciousness, hemispheric laterality, and systemic psychobiology Cogent Psychology April 24, 2017
- Amanita muscaria (fly agaric): from a shamanistic hallucinogen to the search for acetylcholine. The journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh March 1, 2018
- Scoping review on shamanistic trances practices. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies November 4, 2024
- The historical opposition to psychedelic research and implications for credibility in psychiatry. CNS Spectrums November 21, 2024
and 2 more in the library