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Ayahuasca Between Cognition and Culture

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Ayahuasca Between Cognition and Culture Ayahuasca between Cognition and Culture. Perspectives from an interdisciplinary and reflexive ethnography. Ismael Eduardo Apud Peláez Antropologia Mèdica Ayahuasca: Between Cognition and Culture AYAHUASCA BETWEEN COGNITION AND CULTURE Perspectives from an interdisciplinary and reflexive ethnography Tarragona IsmaelAntropologia Eduardo2019 Mèdica, Apud Peláez32 Col·lecció Antropologia Mèdica Direcció Josep M. Comelles (URV), Coral Cuadrada (URV) Consell d’edició Oriol Romaní (URV), Angel Martínez (URV), Susan Di Giacomo (URV), Mabel Gracia (URV), Josep Canals (URV), Xavier Allué (URV), Enrique Perdiguero (Universitat Miguel Hernández), Jordi Farré (URV), Inma Pastor (URV), Joana Zaragoza (URV), Maria Antònia Martorell (URV). Comitè assessor Arachu Castro (Tulane University), Claudi Haxaire (Université Bretagne Occidentale), Alice Desclaux (Aix-en-Provence), Giovanni Pizza (Perugia), Pino Schirripa (Sapienza, Roma), Mari Luz Esteban Galarza (Universtat del País Basc), Gerardo Fernández Juárez (Univeridad de Castilla la Mancha), Txema Uribe Oyarbide (Universidad Pública de Navarra), Núria Romo Avilés (Universidad de Granada), Luis Montiel Llorente (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Fernando Villaamil Pérez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Jesús Armando Haro Encinas (El Colegio de Sonora, Mèxic), Rosa Osorio Carranza (CIESAS, Mèxic), Alejandro Goldberg (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Joan Guix Oliver (URV), Carl Kendall (Tulane University), Ester Jean Langdon (Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil), Cecilia Minayo (Fundació Oswaldo Cruz, Brasil), Ekkehard Schroeder (AGEM+Redaktion Curare), S. Van der Geest (Amsterdam), Francine Saillant (Université Laval, Canadà) Membres d’honor Lluis Mallart Guimerà (París X), Eduardo Menéndez (CIESAS, Mèxic), Tullio Seppilli (1928-2017. Perugia), Arthur Kleinman (Harvard) Medical Anthropology in Tarragona Medical anthropology at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (until 1991, the University of Barcelona at Tarragona) has a history going back more than 30 years. In 1981, the first medical anthropology course in Spain was offered here as part of the under- graduate degree program in anthropology; in 1984, a medical anthropology course was offe- red here for the first time in a Spanish university as part of the degree program in nursing; and in 1986, medical anthropology became part of a Ph.D. program here for the first time in a Spanish university. A required course in medical anthropology has been part of the URV un- dergraduate program in social anthropology since 1993, and will remain so until this program is phased out in 2016. In 1982, the first medical anthropology symposium in Spain (Primeres Jornades d’Antropolo- gia de la Medicina) was held in Tarragona. It was an international event and marked the formal founding of the specialty in this country. Between 1988 and 1994, medical anthropologists in Tarragona organized an interdepartmen- tal Ph.D. program in social sciences and health (Ciències Socials i Salut) jointly with the Uni- versity of Barcelona’s Department of Sociology. A master’s degree program in medical anthropology was offered at URV between 1994 and 2000, and a Ph.D. program in medical anthropology between 1998 and 2007. In 2005, with the so-called Bologna reform of European universities and related changes in the Spanish legislation governing universities, the current two-year master’s degree program in medical anthropology and international health (Màster en Antropologia Mèdica i Salut Inter- nacional) was initiated. A year later, this focus became a priority research line of the depart- ment’s Ph.D. program in anthropology (2006-2013). In 2013, this Ph.D. was transformed into a new doctoral program in anthropology and communication with two priority research lines: medical anthropology and global health, and risk and communication. The students enrolled in these programs come not only from Catalonia and elsewhere in Spain, but also from other European Union countries and Latin America. Between 1996 and 2013, 74 doctoral dissertations in medical anthropology were defended at URV, 23 of them by foreign students. The Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work, founded at the same time as the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in 1991, has medical anthropology as one of its hallmarks both in Spain and abroad. During the summer of 2013, URV will create an interdisciplinary Medical Anthropology Research Center (Centre de Recerca en Antropologia Mèdica) with the partici- pation of medical anthropologists and researchers from other departments: Nursing, Commu- nication Studies, Sociology, History, and Medical Sciences. Ayahuasca: Between Cognition and Culture Perspectives from an interdisciplinary and reflexive ethnography Ismael Eduardo Apud Peláez Tarragona, 2020 Publicacions de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili Av. Catalunya, 35 - 43002 Tarragona Tel. 977 558 474 · [email protected] www.publicacions.urv.cat Antropologia Mèdica, 32 1st edition: March 2020 ISBN (paper): 978-84-8424-834-7 ISBN (PDF): 978-84-8424-835-4 DOI: 10.17345/9788484248347 Legal deposit: T 226-2020 Photograph of the cover page: the curandero Francisco Montes entering to Sachamama center in Iquitos. Photograph taken by Ismael Eduardo Apud Peláez, Peru, February 2014. Cite the book. Find the book in our website. Book licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. This work has been peer-reviewed in accordance with the criteria of the Antropologia Mèdica (Medical Anthropology) collection. Publicacions URV is a member of the Unión de Editoriales Universitarias Españolas and the Xarxa Vives, which ensures the dissemination and sale of its publications nationally and internationally. TABLE OF CONTENTS Figures . 8 Tables . 8 Abbreviations . 9 Acknowledgments ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������11 Psychedelia, rationality and experience: An anthropological perspective . 13 Oriol Romaní Introduction ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������17 Section I. Ethnography in Latin America . 23 Chapter 1. The fieldwork before the fieldwork ��������������������������������������������25 Ayahuasca, vegetalismo, neoshamanism and New Age networks . 30 A mystical experience triggers a research project . 35 Chapter 2. An ethnography from Uruguay to the Amazon rainforest . 39 An interdisciplinary research project: between culture and cognition ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������39 A multi-technical ethnography: using both qualitative and quantitative methods ��������������������������������������������������������������������43 The ayahuasca experiences: spirits and reflections ������������������������������46 The cultivation of mental imagery: ayahuasca as a cognitive tool ����52 A multi-situated ethnography: transnational networks of spirituality . 55 A reflexive anthropology ������������������������������������������������������������������������57 Chapter 3: Anthropology, shamanism and neoshamanism . 61 Enlightenment vs Romanticism . 62 The vilified shaman turns into a psychotherapist ��������������������������������64 Psychedelics and ASCs ����������������������������������������������������������������������������68 Anthropologists going native . 72 Neo-shamanism in the psycho-spiritual networks . 74 The ontological turn . 77 Spiritual ontologies: cognition and ASCs . 84 5 Section II. Ethnography in Catalonia . 87 Chapter 4. Ayahuasca and medical systems in Catalonia ��������������������������89 Arrival in Catalonia . 89 Health care through the lenses of medical anthropology . 90 Medicine, religion and ayahuasca ����������������������������������������������������������94 Medical pluralism and ayahuasca in Catalonia ����������������������������������97 Medicine or religion? . 99 Chapter 5. Science, spirituality and ayahuasca ������������������������������������������103 The demarcation problem ��������������������������������������������������������������������103 Consciousness as the heart of the matter . 105 From an intentional onion to a mechanical universe . 107 Spirits and teleonomies in modern science ����������������������������������������109 The case of psychedelic studies. A pharmacology of spirituality? . 117 Ayahuasca experiences and the founders of two centers . 123 The cultural transmission of science and religion . 129 Chapter 6. Ritual healing from a multi-level perspective ������������������������139 Opening the black box of placebo . 140 Medical anthropology and ritual healing . 145 Ritual in cognitive science of religion . 150 Conversion and experience ������������������������������������������������������������������157 Ritual, cognition and culture. A final synthesis ����������������������������������166 Psychedelics, rituals and healing ����������������������������������������������������������171 Chapter 7. Ayahuasca healing and addictions in Catalonia . 183 Addiction in its context . 184 Ayahuasca and addictions ��������������������������������������������������������������������192 Methodological considerations and qualitative research . 196 Description of the cases ������������������������������������������������������������������������197 Ayahuasca’s spiritual experiences in the 12 cases studied ����������������201 The spirit of the plant as a superhuman agent . 203 Experience, narrative and conversion . 204 Chapter 8. Four biographical narratives of recovery from addiction from IDEAA . 207 Case 1. Body and mind . 210 Case 2.
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