Ayahuasca and Globalization
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_____________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info Ayahuasca and Globalization Jesse H. Hudson Department of Anthropology Deward E. Walker, Ph.D Deward E. Walker, Ph.D, Department of Anthropology Greg Johnson, Ph.D, Department of Religious Studies Douglas Bamforth, Ph.D, Department of Anthropology University of Colorado at Boulder March 28th, 2011 _____________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………...…3 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE………………………………………………………….....3 METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………………………..4 PRESENTATION OF FIELDWORK………………………………………………….....5 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIGENOUS AND WESTERN CULTURES…………6 AYAHUASCA…….……………………………………………………………………...8 PHARMACOLOGY AND INGREDIENTS…..………………………………...10 EFFECTS…….…………………………………………………………………..11 USAGE…….…………………………………………………………………….17 SHAMANISM….………………………………………………………………………..19 ETYMOLOGY OF SHAMAN………………………………..………………....21 GLOBALIZATION……….……………………………………………………………..23 CULTURAL APPROPRIATION OF AYAHUSACA………………………………….27 LEGAL ISSUES OF AYAHUASCA…………………...……..………………………...30 COMMODIFICATION OF AYAHUSACA……..…………………………………..….32 HISTORY OF THE GLOBALIZATION OF AYAHUASCA…………………………..36 CONCLUSION……..……………………………………………………………………43 REFERENCES…….…………………………………………………………………….44 _____________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info 3 Introduction Curious, I open the seat pocket in front of me looking for something to read. The front cover of Delta airline’s November 2010 issue of Sky reads “Find Yourself in India, Arizona, Peru, or Hawaii.” I did my field research in Peru, so I’m suspicious—something smells of ayahuasca. An article titled “Drink Up and Look Within” spans pages 70-71. Senior Sky writer Steve Marsh describes his experience at an ayahuasca lodge in Iquitos, Peru, he read about in National Geographic Adventure (Salak 03/2006) and The New York Times (Isaacson 10/13/2010). The lodge, Blue Morpho, is run by a Californian man named Hamilton Souther, a blonde-haired blue-eyed master shaman with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. This is surprising. Ayahuasca is a plant medicine traditionally consumed only by a number of Indigenous Amazonian peoples. A Californian ayahuasca shaman featured in a globally distributed in-flight magazine is evidence that ayahuasca is being globalized. Statement of Purpose This essay explores the globalization of ayahuasca, a plant medicine endemic to the Amazon basin. I do not propose that ayahuasca has attained a status of ‘globalized,’ but rather that it is involved deeply with a continuing process of globalization. In order to show this, I describe elements of contemporary ayahuasca culture and recount the history of ayahuasca’s globalization. This is a study of a contemporary phenomenon. As such, it contributes fresh research to the scholarly bodies of work on ayahuasca, globalization and indigenous religious practices as a whole. _____________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info 4 Methodology In order to understand the history of ayahuasca’s globalization we must first explore some of the elements involved. These include: the relationship between Indigenous and Western cultures, ayahuasca itself, shamanism, globalization, and my own previous field research. I explore issues inherent in the globalization of ayahuasca such as commodification, cultural appropriation, and ayahuasca’s legality. I discuss changes in the use and meaning of ayahuasca and explore implications of its popularity. In conclusion, I recount the history of ayahuasca’s globalization, revisiting my hypothesis. The information used in this essay has been obtained from sources reflecting the diversity of the subject matter. These include: personal observations and ethnographic narratives from my fieldwork in Peru; articles from peer-reviewed journals such as Anthropology of Consciousness, American Anthropologist, and the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs; scholarly reviews and anthologies; published ethnographies; articles from lay publications; formal and informal travelogues and memoirs; U.S. and international drug laws; documents from court cases involving ayahuasca; statements issued by indigenous organizations, and electronic media such as television programs, videos, and websites. Rather than separately reviewing the literature, I have embedded it within the narrative of the essay. Anthropological studies of contemporary phenomenon benefit from drawing information from diverse sources—though articles in lay publications may be academically unsound they can be used as cultural texts, and are important in determining _____________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info 5 the popular history of a subject. In this case, we benefit from the rich diversity of information available on ayahuasca. Even the academic world is being flooded with it: Labate (et al. 2010) comments on the addition of an Ayahuascsa track to the 2010 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) conference due to the overwhelming number of submissions on the subject. Presentation of Fieldwork During fall semester of 2009 I attended a School for International Training (SIT) field school in Cusco, Peru with the theme of ‘Indigenous Peoples and Globalization.’ The semester culminated in a month-long independent study project, which I presented in a forty-page paper and a thirty-minute presentation both delivered in Spanish. My independent study project, titled Chamanismo y la Globalización, focused on the dialogue between globalization and Peruvian shamanism. The field research I conducted for the project is the inspiration for this study, and primary evidence of ayahuasca’s globalization. For a field-based case study I spent seven days (10/11-10/18) in the Matsiguenga village of Santa Rosa de Huacaria, near to the town of Pillcopata in the Madre de Dios region of the Amazon rainforest, conducting interviews with their resident shaman Alberto Manquiriapa. His narrative exemplifies the increasingly globalized nature of ayahuasca shamanism: with the aid of the organization CEDIA (Center for the Development of Indigenous Amazonians) he has brought ayahuasca throughout Europe and the United States, performing ceremonies in locations as diverse as Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Geneva, Paris, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Stonehenge. _____________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info 6 Manquiriapa regularly returns home, spending most of his time in Santa Rosa de Huacaria. He is a central figure in the community, schoolteacher, radio operator, and mediator between the Matsiguenga and the world at large. He performs Ayahuasca ceremonies for both community members and foreigners. For example, he makes irregular trips up the Manu road to perform ceremonies at a hostel named Atalaya. While staying at the hostel Atalaya, both before and after Santa Rose de Huacaria, I interviewed several young adults from the United States and Europe who had consumed his Ayahuasca. All spoke highly of both him and his brew. Additionally, during my fieldwork stay, a couple from Holland came to Pillcopata searching for Ayahuasca, but, wanting a bargain, they ultimately declined Manquiriapa’s price. Relationship Between Indigenous and Western Cultures The reality of the historical relationship between Indigenous and Western cultures contains undeniable darkness. Though the two cultures and their contemporary hybrids may come from the same origin, their relationship is like that of the biblical brothers Cain and Abel (King James Bible, Genesis 4:1-9). As Cain is the cultivator so is the West; as Cain kills Abel so Western people have systematically murdered, enslaved, oppressed, and abused indigenous people for hundreds of years. The globalization of ayahuasca is the globalization of an indigenous cultural practice. Ideally, the practice translates intact, contributing to the conservation of indigenous culture. But it often falls short, victim of cultural appropriation and re-interpretation. Often it offers no just recompense to indigenous peoples. _____________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info 7 The globalization of ayahuasca treads on bloody ground, but it may have a positive effect. Global demand for ayahuasca and its shamans can generate income for indigenous peoples, while global interests in indigenous culture can inspire cultural revitalization. Financial capital from around the globe is funneled towards conservation efforts. However, cultural revitalization can be biased—meanings of indigenous are re- interpreted and re-made according to foreign desires (Davidov 2010:392). Demand for specific and culturally constructed forms of indigenous authenticity can change indigenous practices. Conservation efforts can be misguided, bureaucratically disconnected, and ineffective on the ground level. There is a grand mystery to the cultural history of the Amazon basin. The idea that it contains only primitive tribes with diverse practices may be culturally constructed, contrary to historical reality. The rainforest is a highly dynamic environment where natural site formation processes work at an accelerated pace, quickly obscuring the archaeological record.