shamanism among the mestizo population of the peruvian amazon

202 Pages·2010·8.81 MB·English

by  Luis Eduardo Luna

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS
STOCKHOLM STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION
27
VEGETALISMO
SHAMANISM AMONG
THE MESTIZO POPULATION
OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
BY
LUIS EDUARDO LUNA
ALMQVIST & WIKSELL INTERNATIONAL
STOCKHOLM/SWEDEN
VEGETALISMO
SHAMANISM AMONG THE MESTIZO POPULATION
OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
Doctoral dissertation
for the doctor's degree in humanities
at the University of Stockholm,
to be publicly examined in English
in room 7, house D, Frescati
on Thursday, June 5, 1986 at 10 a.m.
by
Luis Eduardo Luna
Department of Comparative Religion, Stockholm 1986
ISBN 91-22-00819-5
ABSTRACT
In the Amazonian provinces of Peru indigenous shamanistic
practices are preserved among the mestizo population. Prac-
titioners who call themselves vegetalistas (from which the
term Vegetalismo may be formed) believe that certain plants,
which they call doctores (plant-teachers) have spirits from
which knowledge about this and other worlds may be gained,
if these plants are ingested under certain conditions invol-
ving sexual segregation and a diet that may extend from six
months to several years. Several of these plants have pycho-
tropic properties, or contain important biodynamic compounds.
Two of these plants, Banisteriopsis caapi (Spruce ex Griseb.)
Morton and Psychotria viridis Ruiz & Pavon, are used in the
preparation of ayahuasca, a psychotropic brew with the aid of
which vegetalistas contact the spirit world in order to
diagnose and cure illnesses. Other plant-teachers may also be
added to the basic ayahuasca preparation.
This book presents information about shamanic initiation,
and of the spirit world of vegetalistas. Shamanic knowledge
and power transmitted to the neophytes have two principal
manifestations: 1) magic melodies or icaros which are learned
from the spirits and used to perform various shamanic tasks,
and 2) a magic substance received from the spirits and
carried by vegetalistas in their chests, and which is used in
the extraction of magic darts or virotes, shot by evil sor-
cerers, and which are believed to be one of the causes of
illness. This book also provides information about ayahuasca
sessions and the ideas held in the Peruvian Amazon about ill-
ness and its treatment.

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS
STOCKHOLM STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION
27
V E G E T A L I S M O
SHAMANISM AMONG THE MESTIZO POPULATION
OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
BY
LUIS EDUARDO LUNA
CONTENTS
CONTENTS 5
MAP 8
PREFACE 9
Chapter 1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Scope 13
1.2. Shamanism 13
1.3. The term "mestizo" 15
1.4. Ayahuasca and the plant-teachers 15
1.5. Methodological considerations 16
1.6. A survey of the scientific literature 18
1.7. Organization of the material 23
Chapter 2.
VEGETALISMO IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
2.1. The Peruvian Amazon area................................. 25
2.2. Iquitos and Pucallpa. Historical and
socio-economic considerations 27
2.3. Religious background of the area 29
2.4. Tribal Amazonian shamanism: main characteristics 30
2.5. Vegetalismo and vegetalistas: Amazonian
mestizo shamanism 31
2.6. The informants 36
Chapter 3.
SHAMANIC INITIATION AND THE PLANT-TEACHERS
3.1. Shamanic initiation 43
3.1.1. Don Emilio's account 44
3.1.2. Don Jose's account 46
3.1.3. Learning from an ant spirit 47
3.1.4. Commentaries on the accounts 50
3.2. The diet and sexual segregation 51
3.3. The use of psychotropic plants in the Americas 55
3.4. Ayahuasca: An overview 57
3.5. Tribal uses of ayahuasca 60
3.6. Learning from the plants 62
3.7. The plant-teachers 67
Chapter 4.
THE SUPERNATURAL REALM
4.1. Spirit world 73
4.1.01. The Chullachaqui 74
4.1.02. The Sachamama 77
4.1.03. The Yakumama 79
4.1.04. The Yakuruna 80
4.1.05. The Sirena (mermaid) 82
4.1.06. The Bufeo Colorado (pink river dolphin) 84
4.1.07. Plants leading to the underwater world 87
4.1.08. The Tunchi 87
4.1.09. Christian elements 89
4.1.10. The Inca motif 89
4.2. The concept of arkana 90
4.3. The helping spirits 94
Chapter 5.
THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRITS: THE MAGIC MELODIES AND
THE MAGIC PHLEGM
5.1. The magic melodies or icaros 97
5.2. Icaros and plant-teachers 101
5.3. Function of the icaros 104
5.3.1. Icaros for calling the spirit of a person,
plant or animal 104
5.3.2. Icaros to modify the effect of ayahuasca
and other plant-teachers 105
5.3.3. Icaros arkana 107
5.3.4. Icaros for healing 107
5.3.5. Huarmi icaros 108
5.3.6. Other kinds of icaros 108
5.4. The magic phlegms 110
5.5. The dichotomy good vs vegetalista 116
Chapter 6.
ILLNESS AND ITS TREATMENT
6.1. Etiology of illness 119
6.2. Diagnosis of illness 122
6.3. Illness as a magic dart: A case study 123
6.4. Extraction of the magic dart: Treatment 125
6.5. Doctor shopping: The case of Doña Rosa Teco 128
6.6. Soul-loss 132
6.7. Illness produced by spiritual beings 135
6.8. Love magic 135
6.9. Herbal baths 136
Chapter 7.
AYAHUASCA SESSIONS AND VISIONS
7.1. ayahuasca sessions 141
7.1.1. An ayahuasca session in the home
of Don Emilio 143
7.2. The role of ayahuasca: visions vs. cleansing 148
7.3. Shamanic journeys 152
CONCLUSIONS 157
Appendix I
Indian tribes that use or used Banisteriopsis based
narcotic beverages 167
Appendix II
Vernacular names given to Banisteriopsis based narcotic
beverages 171
Appendix III
Musical transcription of magic melodies or icaros 174
REFERENCES 181

PREFACE
"Pues la Ayahuasca encierra toda la ciencia y el arte
del médico aborigen o del curandero popular que se
sirve de aquélla. A ella acuden en demanda de sabidu-
ría, sea por aliviar el dolor de sus semejantes o
descubrir lo desconocido y alcanzar la esencia de las
cosas. " (Gabriel del Castillo 1963: 88)
There is no doubt that shamanism is quite the vogue today. The
words shaman and shamanism are no longer obscure terms used
only at scientific meetings by a handful of specialists. We are
witnessing an explosion of literature on shamanism, both
scientific and popular, in the West. These terms are, in
fact, being used so much, and in such a broad sense, that they
will probably soon lose all significance -there is already
enough debate in scientific literature about the elements
implied in these terms, the geographical location where "real"
shamans exist -or existed-, and in what cases these terms can
be applied.
There has been a similar explosion of literature dealing with
psychotropic plants and mind-altering compounds, partly a con-
sequence of the discovery -some would rather say "rediscovery"-
of mind altering substances by the Western world, with all its
economic, social, cultural, religious and political implica-
tions (cf. Grinspoon & Bakalar 1979: 56-88; Weil 1972: 39-72;
Furst 1972:vii-xvi). In the past twenty years many books and
articles have been published dealing with the ritual use of
psychotropic plants by indigenous people. Because these plants
are nearly always used in a sacred context, the connection
between shamanism and the use of psychotropic plants is self-
evident.
I first became interested in the shamanic use of psychotropic
plants in November 1971 when meeting the American ethnobotanist
Terence McKenna in Florencia, the capital of Caquetá, my native
province, in the Colombian Amazon area. McKenna was at that
time searching for information about an indigenous psycho-
tropic beverage best known in Colombia under the Tukano name of
yagé, and in Ecuador and Peru under the Quechua denomination of
ayahuasca, which is used by a number of tribes of the Western
Amazon, the Orinoco Plains and the Pacific Lowlands from Panama
to Ecuador.
Although born in the Amazon area, I had had relatively little
exposure to Amazonian life and way of thinking. I received most
of my basic education in Bogotá. In 1965, when I was seventeen
years of age, I moved to Spain, where I studied Spanish philo-
logy at the University of Madrid. In November 1971 I was having
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holidays in Colombia after an absence of seven years. When I
met Terence McKenna I had never heard about yagé. But I soon
realized that many people in Florencia, including my father,
knew about yagé, and about its association with the jaguar,
which I later learned is an element in shamanism among several
Amazonian tribes (cf. Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975).
My father and several other people mentioned to me the name
of Apolinar Yacanamijoy, an Ingano Indian I had vaguely heard
about since my childhood, but without paying much attention to
it -the nature of our educational system makes us much more
interested in what is happening in Europe or in North Ame-
rica than in what is at our own door-step. Don Apolinar lived
near Yurayacu, at that time a small settlement, which could be
reached from Florencia only by walking about 12 hours along a
jungle path from the town of Belén de los Andaquíes.
I went several times to a house where Don Apolinar used to
spend the night on the rare occasions he went to Florencia. In
January 1972 I finally met him for the first time. He told
me that if I wanted to learn about yagé, there was only one
way: To stay with him some time and to follow a special diet he
would prescribe me. Unfortunately, I had to return to Europe to
finish my studies in Madrid and did not return to Colombia
until seven years later.
I spent the summer of 1973 at McKenna's home in Berkeley,
where I was exposed to the bewildering Californian cultural and
intellectual life. Among the books that came into my hands were
two anthologies, edited by Peter Furst (1972) and Michael
Harner (1973) on the role played by psychotropic plants in
shamanism and Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff's book on Desana
mythology (1971). I wrote to Dr. Reichel-Dolmatoff, who kindly
replied to my letter. He wrote to me that if I really wanted to
undertake any serious research on yagé in the future, I had to
try to get some interdisciplinary education. Back to Europe -I
had recently moved to Norway-, I took courses in chemistry,
ecology and linguistics, while at the same time I was lecturing
on Spanish and Latin American Literature at the Institute of
Romanic Languages of Oslo University. In 1979 I got a teaching
post at the Swedish School of Economics and Business Adminis-
tration in Helsinki/Helsingfors, and for the first time I was
able to afford to do field work.
In the summer of 1980 I went to Yurayacu to see Don Apoli-
nar. I simply took a bus, since Yurayacu was already connected
through a road to Florencia. I found a very old man dismayed
by the destruction of his garden of magic plants by ignorant
colonists, who did not distinguish one plant from another. He
agreed that I could spend the summer of 1981 with him, although
he warned me that he thought he was going to die soon. I prepa-
red myself for this trip consulting Prof. Åke Hultrantz, Head
of the Institute of Comparative Religion of Stockholm Universi-
ty, who was generous with his time in instructing me about what
things to look for when I would be with Don Apolinar.
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