Book review of O uso ritual da ayahuasca. Beatriz Caiuby Labate & Wladimyr Sena Araújo (editors). Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil): Mercado das Letras / FAPESP, 2002. 686 pp. ISBN 85 85725-91-5

Perez Gil, Laura

English

Trinity University

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of LowlandSouth AmericaISSN: 2572-3626 (online)Volume 1Issue 1 Special Issue: Politics and Religion inAmazoniaArticle 10June 2003O uso ritual da ayahuascaLaura Perez GilUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipitiPart of the Anthropology CommonsThis Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Trinity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tipití: Journal of theSociety for the Anthropology of Lowland South America by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Trinity. For more information, please contactjcostanz@trinity.edu.Recommended CitationPerez Gil, Laura (2003). "O uso ritual da ayahuasca," Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America: Vol. 1:Iss. 1, Article 10.Available at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol1/iss1/10126 Tipitísystems.  These systems are then judged to differ from one another largely inunessential matters of form ... they are evaluated not in social terms, but byreference to abstract models which are felt to be of prior logical importance(1942:7).I quote Sweezy because the mindset he criticizes is evident in the presentwork.  For Godoy, sophisticated quantitative rigor is paramount becausemeasuring what an Indian does once he possesses cash must reveal the effectsof the market.  The implicit reasoning holds that once the money form ofvalue is introduced (money itself being an apparently universal category),markets assume shape.  When departing from the ideal form of logical models,markets may be “distorted.”  But, as an economic universal, markets emergefrom a variety of social forms, inexorably bubbling to the surface when notrepressed, whereupon they are held to be “causes.”  For example, Godoy (p. 6)asserts thatthe most rigorous method for studying the effects of markets on welfare andon conservation consists of giving gifts of cash to [indigenous] villagers selectedat random, measuring changes in outcomes before and after the transfer, andcomparing changes in outcomes between those who received the transfer(treatment samples) and those who did not (control sample).Contemplating this statement, I am struck by the troubling combination ofunreality and optimism that is matched only by the disturbing realization thatthe worldview of the neoclassical economist, in which supply magically appearsto meet demand, is the ruling view of our age.  The gulf between anthropologyand this view yawns as a dizzying abyss.So, there is good news and bad news here for Tipití readers.  On the onehand, Godoy has labored to craft an empirical account of indigenous rural lifeto measure the effects of markets in areas that matter to conservationists anddevelopment specialists.  In the process, he shows how tricky this enterprise isto accomplish.  The bad news is that the econometric orientation itself makesindigenous sociopolitical organization, history, and social relations disappear.We are left with no clue as to how markets arise and how indigenous peoplespersist and adapt in the real world.O uso ritual da ayahuasca.  Beatriz Caiuby Labate & Wladimyr Sena Araújo(editors).  Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil): Mercado das Letras / FAPESP,2002.  686 pp.  R$68.00 (paper).  ISBN 85 85725-91-5.[www.mercado-de-letras.com.br]LAURA PÉREZ GILUniversidade Federal de Santa Catarina1Published by Digital Commons @ Trinity, 2003Book Reviews 127Ayahuasca, a drink with psychoactive properties generally prepared bycombining the vine of Banisteriopsis caapi with the leaves of Psychotria viridis,has spread considerably in the last three decades within the Brazilian, Europeanand North American urban contexts.  Traditionally used in shamanic ritualsby Panoan, Tukanoan and Arawakan indigenous groups of western Amazonia,it was adopted by the folk healers (vegetalistas) of the rainforest areas ofColombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, becoming central to their therapeuticrituals.  Later, the rubber tappers, who worked in the Brazilian region of Acreduring the rubber boom in the first quarter of the twentieth century, learnedits usage from the Indian and caboclo populations and appropriated it for theirown purposes.With ayahuasca as a thematic axis that moves beyond cultural and academicfrontiers, O uso ritual da ayahuasca, edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate andWladimyr Sena Araújo, provides an overall view of the usages of thepsychotropic brew in different cultural contexts: indigenous groups, mestizoand caboclo rituals, Brazilian ayahuasca religions and the expansion of these inEurope.  This book is the result of the First Congress of the Ritual Usage ofAyahuasca (I CURA), held in 1997 in Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil), andrepresents an attempt of interdisciplinary dialogue.  Although most of thechapters are written by anthropologists, other authors are specialists frommedicine, cognitive psychology, psychiatry, chemistry, pharmacology, law andtheology.  The purpose of going beyond usual boundaries is reflected in othercharacteristics of the book.  On the one hand, its authors belong to institutionsof American and European countries.  On the other hand, the book givesspace not only to academic researchers, but also to members of the Brazilianayahuasca religions and to therapeutic practitioners.  In this way, it offers anacademic point of view as well as that of the users of ayahuasca.  The result isa polyphonic book, where the voices of researchers and natives coexist.  Infact, they are sometimes indistinguishable, since some researchers arethemselves members of ayahuasca religions and/or use their own personalexperience with ayahuasca as the basis of their analysis.The book is divided into three parts, which in some sense reproduce theexpansion process of ayahuasca use from indigenous societies to its currentspread in developed countries.   Part one, entitled “Ayahuasca among Peopleof the Forest,” includes articles examining the ritual uses of ayahuasca amongindigenous populations, folk healers and Acrean rubber tappers.  In her analysisof the Kaxinawa use of ayahuasca, Keifenheim suggests that its consumptionis not restricted to specialists and that, on the contrary, it is an essential practicebeneficial to daily activities.  With increased dependence on agriculture andless hunting and gathering as a result of contact, these practices are changingand women have ceased to consume it.  Jean Langdon examines a Siona man’snarrative, which describes his personal process of acquisition and loss ofshamanic power.  She employs this narrative as a means to explore therelationship between the subjectivity of personal experience and the orientation2Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South Americahttp://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol1/iss1/10128 Tipitígiven by the culture for its interpretation, a question rarely discussed inethnology.The second part of the book, the largest, contains papers describing andanalyzing the three Brazilian ayahuasca religions: Santo Daime, Barquinhaand União do Vegetal (UDV).  Some authors (Goulart, Monteiro, Couto) areconcerned with the process of the emergence of these religions.  They analyzethe historic, social and economic aspects of ayahuasca religions, connectingtheir development to the wider national context.  They also attempt to discernthe specific roles played in this emergence by the existing Brazilian religioustraditions: folk Catholicism, indigenous shamanism, Afro-Brazilian cults(mainly Umbanda) and Kardecism.  In addition, western ideologies arisingfrom liberation movements of the 1960s reached the remote lands of Acrethrough the backpackers from Brazilian, European and North American citiestraveling there in order to experience ayahuasca.The latter stage of this historic process is the diffusion of ayahuascareligions, first to Brazilian urban settings, and from these to North Americanand European cities.  This movement is an effect of the eagerness for religiousand spiritual alternatives in modern society.  Nevertheless, its transposition todeveloped countries is not without problems.  Carsten Balzer’s article describesthe failure of a Santo Daime ritual performed in Germany.  Most of itsparticipants had a disagreeable experience with ayahuasca, which is interpretedby the author as the consequence of the incongruity between Daime’s ritualsymbolic expression and the Germans’ expectations, inspired primarily by theNew Age movement.  They anticipated an esoteric shamanic ritual providingthe chance for individual experience, but they experienced instead a ritualinspired by a doctrine that emphasizes collectiveness and is impregnated withcatholic principles and images, which caused deep rejection on their part.Apart from the social implications of ayahuasca use, some authors alsotackle the study of symbolic elements in ayahuasca religions.  They describethe rituals and explore some of their doctrine’s central concepts, such as therelationship between soul and body (Goulart); the concepts of sickness andcure (Sena Araújo, Peláez); the category of “person” (Peláez); and the notionsof shamanic flight and possession (Monteiro, Brissac, Couto).  Some of thesechapters look at the origins of the elements constituting ayahuasca religionsand reflect on the way of dealing with their eclectic and heterogeneous nature.The fact that ayahuasca religions are composed through the confluence ofdifferent traditions has caused them to be characterized as syncretic.  However,the pertinence of this concept is refuted by some researchers (McRae, SenaAraújo, Labate), who consider it inappropriate since it implies the idea of aninarticulate amalgamation of elements.The connection between ayahuasca religions and shamanism is anotherissue discussed in several papers.  Most regard certain aspects of ayahuascareligions as shamanistic.  Their opinion is grounded on restricted interpretationsof the essence of shamanism.  For example, Couto reduces his definition of3O uso ritual da ayahuascaPublished by Digital Commons @ Trinity, 2003Book Reviews 129shamanism to Eliade’s “technique of ecstasy” and claims that the visionaryexperience in ayahuasca religions is analogous to the shamanic flight.  Monteiroequates the experiences of the Santo Daime founder to those of shamanicinitiation.  However, these arguments reproduce a commonsense understandingof shamanism.  In contrast, the studies that describe the indigenous shamanicsystems, such as those by Keifenheim and Langdon, allow the reader to realizethat there are substantial differences between indigenous cosmologies and thedoctrines of the ayahuasca religions.  Consequently, the characterization ofayahuasca religions as shamanic systems requires more careful considerations.However, despite the fact that some authors utilize anthropological analyticaltools in a simplistic way (Bandeira, Couto), they still have the merit of providingfirst-hand and pioneering descriptions of these little-known religions.The last part of the book is dedicated to pharmacological, phytochemicaland psychological research linked to the active ingredients found in ayahuasca.Three articles report the results of one research project carried out incollaboration between members of UDV’s Medical Council and researchersfrom European, Brazilian and North American universities.  The main objectiveof this project was to examine the physical and psychological effects ofayahuasca.  Although not stated explicitly, these articles—as well as severalothers—are concerned with showing that ayahuasca consumption is notharmful.  Several articles emphasize that ayahuasca does not create chemicaldependency and they argue that, on the contrary, its ingestion in controlledritual contexts has several beneficial effects.  UDV’s members underlineayahuasca’s capacity to promote psychological transformation, allowing peopleto overcome existential problems such as the tendency for violence, alcoholismor drug dependency.  At the same time, it permits the development of somedesirable virtues, like maturity, self-confidence and sociability.  These religionsconsider that the benefits produced by ayahuasca are mainly psychological andspiritual, and their doctrines are highly charged with morality.The approach to ayahuasca proposed by Jacques Mabit, a French doctor,is a significant departure.  In the Peruvian village of Tarapoto, he directs aprogram for the recovery of drug addiction using ayahuasca as its key element.His therapeutic practices are based on the vegetalistas’ understanding ofayahuasca and its ritual use.  Mabit affirms that his usage of ayahuasca isexclusively therapeutic without moral implications.One reason for the general concern with the physical and psychologicaleffects of frequent ayahuasca ingestion is the problem of its legal status.  Theactive ingredient (DMT) present in the beverage is prohibited by internationaltreaties as well as national narcotics laws.  Although the Brazilian governmentdoes not prohibit the religious use of ayahuasca, this is not true for Europe,excluding Holland, where ayahuasca religions were obliged to becomeclandestine.Germán Zuluaga and Mabit raise another relevant question.  They considerthe possibility that increased search for psychedelic experiences in Western4Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South Americahttp://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol1/iss1/10130 Tipitísocieties—the pursuit of ayahuasca and shamanic rituals being one example—contains the risk of new misappropriations of indigenous wisdom and threatensindigenous peoples’ intellectual property rights.  The illegal and indiscriminatetrade of ayahuasca in the face of international prohibitions could lead to itsproscription among the populations that traditionally use it.  By raising theseethical questions regarding ayahuasca usage, the book contributes to animportant discussion that is especially relevant in the current process ofglobalization.In its diversity of topics and viewpoints, O uso ritual da ayahuasca is certainlya heterogeneous book.  While there is a disparity of quality in the articles, theoverall presentation of the volume contains various ways of and significantperspectives for understanding ayahuasca in different cultural contexts.  Itsvalue as a contribution to knowledge goes beyond its unifying themes.  Takenas a whole, the volume both challenges conventional frontiers of scientificknowledge and points out new issues and questions—epistemological andmethodological—concerning the use of ayahuasca in cultural and religiouspractices.  Finally, it is necessary to highlight the fact that this book is one ofthe few published works to offer a state of the art overview of this topic.  Thesurvey contained within it is, without doubt, the most extensive up to now.Among its main achievements are the articulation between the ethnographicand analytic richness provided by case studies and the provision of an overallview through its more synthetic chapters, which serve as a guide to readersunfamiliar with the topic.Gender and Sociality in Amazonia: How Real People Are Made.  CeciliaMcCallum.  Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001.  xii + 208 pp., figures, table,references, glossary, index.  $70.00 (cloth); $23.00 (paper).  ISBN 1-85973-449-9; ISBN 1-85973-454-5-NPB.  [www.bergpublishers.com]JAVIER RUEDASTulane UniversityCecilia McCallum’s Gender and Sociality in Amazonia is a bold and noveltheoretical statement on the issue of gender and inequality in Amazonia.Pulling no punches, McCallum criticizes the view that oppression of womenis a social universal in indigenous Amazonia.  She points out flaws in theprevailing anthropological epistemologies used to address this topic and laysout a contrary argument for gender complementarity, drawing on ethnographicdata on the Cashinahua of Acre, Brazil, for support.  The book’s main strengthsare its thought-provoking theoretical frameworks and proposals, its strongcritiques of previous work on gender in Amazonia, and particularly itsapplication of the latest developments in gender theory to the field of5O uso ritual da ayahuascaPublished by Digital Commons @ Trinity, 2003

O uso ritual da ayahuasca

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