Ayahuasca: Beween Cognition and Culture: Perspectives from an interdisciplinary and reflexive ethnography

294 Pages·2020·7.041 MB·English

by  Ismael Eduardo Apud Peláez

Ayahuasca between Cognition and Culture.
Perspectives from an interdisciplinary and reflexive ethnography.
Ismael Eduardo Apud Peláez

Antropologia Mèdica
Ayahuasca: Between Cognition and Culture

AYAHU ASCA

BETWEEN COGNITION AND CULTURE

Perspectives from an interdisciplinary

and reflexive ethnography
Tarragona
IsmaAenlt rEodpuola2or0gdi1ao9 M Aèpduicda , P32eláez
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
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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. [phone] · [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.
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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
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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. Lies and jaguars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Case 3. Fights and troubles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Case 4. Death and God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Final conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
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Chapter 9. Two conversions in Catalonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Case 1. Death and rebirth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Case 2. Masks and intrusive thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Final conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
General conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
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FIGURES
Figure 1. The chacruna bush and the ayahuasca vine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Figure 2. Two different ritual settings. The Church of Alto Santo
and Barquinha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Figure 3. Timeline of my research into ayahuasca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Figure 4. Work in Santo Daime, Céu do Mapiá . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 5. Concoction of ayahuasca by day, ceremony by night . . . . . . . . 34
Figure 6. Cultural-historical activity system triangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Figure 7. The mesa used by Merilena at Ayariri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Figure 8. Ethno-entheogenic tourism in Cusco, Peru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Figure 9. The social science tabula rasa and evolutionary psychology
modularity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Figure 10. Health care systems in modern Western societies . . . . . . . . . . 93
Figure 11. Three cognitive domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Figure 12. Four different context biases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Figure 13. Randomized controlled trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Figure 14. Ritual form theory by Lawson & McCauley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Figure 15. Ritual setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Figure 16. Ritual mind’s set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Figure 17. Extra-pharmacological model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Figure 18. Medial section of the brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Figure 19. Skinner’s Box and the Rat Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Figure 20. Network of the groups and cases studied.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
TABLES
Table 1. Descola’s types of ontologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Table 2. Hierarchical levels in the transmission of ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Table 3. Nested hierarchical levels of organization according to Dow . 148
Table 4. Ritual organizing framework of Hobson and collaborators . . . 157
Table 5. Old and new paradigms of conversion, according to
Richardson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Table 6. Conversion motifs of Lofland & Skonovd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Table 7. Birthplace and residence of the cases studied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Table 8. Religious affiliation before and after ayahuasca . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
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ABBREVIATIONS
5-HT: 5-hydroxytryptamine
AA: Alcoholics Anonymous
APA: American Psychiatric Association
AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ASCs: Altered States of Consciousness
CSR: Cognitive Science of Religion
CEFLURIS: Centro Eclético da Fluente Luz Universal Raimundo Irineu
Serra
DMT: N,N-dimethyltryptamine
DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
fMRI: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
HRS: Hallucinogen Rating Scale
HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus
ICD: International Classification of Diseases
IDEAA: Instituto de Etnopsicología Amazónica Aplicada (Institute of
Applied Amazonian Ethnopsychology)
LSD: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
MCI: Minimal Counterintuitiveness
MARC: Medical Anthropology Research Center
NAC: Native American Church
NGO: Non-Governmental Organization
NIDA: National Institute of Drug Abuse
NMDA: N-methyl-D-aspartic acid
NRMs: New Religious Movements
RCTs: Randomized Controlled Trials
SPECT: Single Proton Emission Computed Tomography
UDV: União do Vegetal
URV: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
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