Paper short abstract:

My presentation will explore the role that learning and socialization in articulation with a local theory of mind has for interpreting and guiding the ayahuasca ritual experience for ethical self-transformation. It is based on my ongoing ethnographic work with indigenous and mestizo populations in the Peruvian Amazon.

Paper long abstract:

Ayahuasca rituals are the purposeful drinking of the ayahuasca psychoactive brew to induce strong visionary and bodily experiences. The brew is composed by combining the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) with other hallucinogenic plants -e.g. chacruna (Psychotria viridis) or changropanga (Diplopterys cabrerana)- and has been used by indigenous and mestizo people of the Amazon for shamanic initiation, bolstering of social bonds, healing, decision making, countering/exercising witchcraft, among other purposes.

Currently, the internationalization of psychedelics has enabled the consumption of ayahuasca outside local contexts. In this regard, research has focused on aspects related to the instrumentalization/therapeutic potential of ayahuasca, or the “default” animist perspective from which Amazonian people consume and interpret their experiences with ayahuasca. However, reduced attention has been placed on how learning and socialization processes shape the degree of skill to interpret and render efficacy to the ritual experience, and further, connect such experiences with desirable behaviors and norms.

Following Tanya Lurhmann’s discussion on the anthropological theory of mind, my presentation will explore how indigenous and mestizo people mediate and develop the capacities for rendering their ritual experiences effective for self-transformation. My objective is to analyze how the perceived effectiveness of ayahuasca elicits ethical affordances for guiding everyday behavior in their respective contexts.

My data is based on my ongoing ethnographic fieldwork (03.2022-02.2023), with indigenous communities -awajún, quechua-lamista- and mestizo people in urban/periurban spaces in San Martin, Peru. My observations are supported by qualitative techniques in the form of thematic, semi-structured interviews, and field notes.