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Anthropology & Sociology

‘Whatever you want to believe’ kaleidoscopic individualism and ayahuasca healing in Australia

July 14, 2015 / Anthropology & Sociology, Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

Over the last fifteen years the use of the indigenous Amazonian psychoactive beverage ayahuasca has been reimagined in alternative healing circles of Western countries. This paper explores the practice of ayahuasca neoshamanism in Australia and examines ways in which acts of vomiting and ecstatic trance-visions involve heightened affective states and moral projects of healing. Aspects of everyday life are purged, rearticulated, and reconstituted in rituals where codes of conduct and discursive exchange encourage practices of personal evaluation and reflexivity that appear to index ideologies of individualism. Through exploring social and discursive prohibitions and forms of sensory organisation, the practice of drinking ayahuasca in Australia is shown to be constituted by ritual conventions that define the individual as autonomous and responsible in relation to ecstatic trance and articulations of wellbeing.

Gearin, A. K. (2015). ‘Whatever you want to believe’kaleidoscopic individualism and ayahuasca healing in Australia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/taja.12143
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Howard Becker in Hyperspace: Social Learning in an On-Line Drug Community

June 26, 2015 / Anthropology & Sociology, Papers, Publications / By / ,

Abstract

Analyzing on-line drug communities provides important insights into the connection between computer-mediated communication and drug use in contemporary society. Drawing on social learning theory, we analyze conversations within the on-line community DMT-Nexus. We find that the on-line context affects the social learning process concerning drug use in distinct ways and identify how users gain relevant knowledge and interpretive strategies and acquire credibility. Based on these findings, we propose an expansion of Becker’s social learning model of drug use reflecting the unique constraints and opportunities of on-line contexts including the importance of vivid textual descriptions and modes of communication.

Rosino, M., & Linders, A. (2015). Howard Becker in Hyperspace: Social Learning in an On-Line Drug Community. Deviant Behavior, (ahead-of-print), 1-15. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2014.977114
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A Thread in The Vine: The Deep Ecology of Contemporaray Ayahuasca Discourse

June 11, 2015 / Anthropology & Sociology, Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Papers, Philosophy & Religious Studies, Publications / By / ,

Abstract

This thesis uses the philosophy of deep ecology as a theoretical framework to explore ecospiritual themes as a key feature of increasing discourse around the ayahuasca phenomenon. The broad objective of the research is to use contemporary ayahuasca discourse to reveal the way cross-cultural seekers engage with and discuss shamanic practices that inform a postmodern ecosophical ontology and deep ecological praxis. Three convergent discourses inform this research; the transcultural ayahuasca phenomenon, nature-based spiritualities of the New Age and the philosophy of deep ecology. Threading through these discourses are ecological and spiritual themes that capture a web of meanings for contextualising the transcultural emergence of ayahuasca
spirituality. A key paradigmatic shift suggested by contemporary ayahuasca discourse is a shift in human consciousness toward a non-dualistic ontology regarding humanity’s place in nature. An ecocultural studies approach provides theoretical support for interpreting how the elements of this paradigmatic shift are discussed, understood and practiced. As the internet functions as a superlative site for discursive formations of ayahuasca, a thematic content analysis of selected discussion forums within the Ayahuasca.com website was conducted using a multiparadigmatic, deductive and inductive approach. Naess and Sessions’ (1984) eight platform principles of deep ecology were used as a framework to deductively locate textual articulations of the philosophy. Further inductive analysis revealed not only embedded deep ecological themes but also articulations of an ecocentric praxis arising from experiences of unitary consciousness and plant sentience. The deep ecology articulated in contemporary ayahuasca discourse further raised an explicit challenge to hegemonic anthropocentricism through expressions of an expanded sense of self that accentuates the countercultural bearings of entheogenic informed ecospirituality.

Baker, J., & Coco, D. A. A Thread in the Vine: The Deep Ecology of Contemporary Ayahuasca Discourse. https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3040.2729

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Harm Reduction or Psychedelic Support?

June 1, 2015 / Anthropology & Sociology, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

Many of the EDM events known as “transformational festivals” provide psychedelic support spaces: volunteer projects caring for festivalgoers undergoing difficult drug experiences. Mostly drawn from the festival community, many volunteer carers (“sitters”) subscribe to psychedelic culture discourse which frames these substances as aids to personal growth if handled appropriately. However, within the dominant paradigm of international drug prohibition, support projects must employ the contrasting discourse of harm reduction in order to gain access to events, visibility to festivalgoers, and integration with other support staff. Harm reduction, a paradigm for the care of drug users which began as a grassroots heroin addict advocacy movement, has since become associated with neoliberal, medicalised views of drugs, drug users and the self. his article considers how psychedelic support workers negotiate this discourse dichotomy in the course of caregiving, within differing national and local drug policy climates. Early findings are presented from ethnographic fieldwork as a psychedelic support volunteer with three organisations at seven festivals, combining participant observation and in-depth interviews with nineteen support workers. Events in the UK, the US and Portugal were studied due to these countries’ contrasting policy regimes. Points of conflict between the psychedelic and harm reduction discourses were found to create tensions both within the support organisations and in their relations with on-site medics, security guards, festival organisers and police. he findings suggest that mainstream harm reduction discourses may be a poor it for psychedelics and that risks inhere in their adoption by festival support spaces, such as abjection of drug users in difficulty which may create a trust-damaging divide between users and workers.

Ruane, D. (2015). Harm Reduction or Psychedelic Support?. Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, 7(1) http://dx.doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2015.07.01.03

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A brief survey of drug use and other activities preceding mystical-religious experiences

March 20, 2015 / Anthropology & Sociology, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

Many people report having had mystical-religious experiences. The prevalence of these experiences has increased over time, which suggests changing cultural factors may contribute the experience. I conducted an online survey of 6,209 adults to determine how common different activities, including drug use, were before the onset of a mystical-religious experience. 19.6% (1,045) reported having had a mystical-religious experience and were asked a follow-up question on their activities before the experience. The most commonly endorsed pre-onset activity categories were: Prayer, meditation, or contemplation (37.2%); Being outdoors in nature (19.6%); and Religious ceremony, practice, or ritual (16.1%). Less commonly, respondents reported fasting (5.7%) or drug use (4.7%). A large percent (35.2%) reported not engaging in any of these activities before their experiences. Psychoactive drugs and nature are precedents to mystical-religious experience that are not selectively associated with traditional religious institutions and deserve additional study.

Baggott MJ. (2015) A brief survey of drug use and other activities preceding mystical-religious experiences Available at: https://github.com/mattbaggott/mysticalsurvey/blob/master/results/Baggott%20mystical%20survey%20March2015.pdf.
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Forbidden therapies: Santo Daime, ayahuasca, and the prohibition of entheogens in Western society

February 1, 2015 / Anthropology & Sociology, Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

Santo Daime, a Brazilian religion organized around a potent psychoactive beverage called ayahuasca, is now being practiced across Europe and North America. Deeming ayahuasca a dangerous “hallucinogen,” most Western governments prosecute people who participate in Santo Daime. On the contrary, members of Santo Daime (called “daimistas”) consider ayahuasca a medicinal sacrament (or “entheogen”). Empirical studies corroborate daimistas’ claim that entheogens are benign and can be beneficial when employed in controlled contexts. Following from anthropology’s goal of rendering different cultural logics as mutually explicable, this article intercedes in a misunderstanding between policies of prohibition and an emergent subculture of entheogenic therapy.

Blainey, M. G. (2015). Forbidden therapies: Santo Daime, ayahuasca, and the prohibition of entheogens in western society. Journal of religion and health, 54(1), 287-302. 10.1007/s10943-014-9826-2
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Medical Drug or Shamanic Power Plant: The Uses of Kambô in Brazil

December 11, 2014 / Anthropology & Sociology, Biology & Ethnobotany, Depressive Disorders, Papers, Psychiatry & Medicine, Publications / By / ,

Abstract

The secretion from the frog Phyllomedusa bicolor, known in Portuguese as kambô, has traditionally been used as a stimulant and an invigorating agent for hunting by indigenous groups such as the Katukina, Yawanawa, and the Kaxinawa in the southeast Amazon. Since the mid 90s, its use has expanded to large cities in Brazil and, since the late 2000s, abroad to Europe and the US. The urban diffusion of the use of kambô has taken place via healing clinics offering alternative therapies, by way of members of the Brazilian ayahuasca religions, and through travel, mainly by Amazonian rubber tappers, the Katukina, and the Kawinawa Indians. In this article, we present an ethnography of the expansion and reinvention of the use of kambô. We describe the individuals who apply the substance, who are a diverse group, including indigenous healers, ex-rubber tappers, holistic therapists, and doctors. We argue that the frog secretion has a double appeal among this new urban clientele: as a “remedy of science,” in which its biochemical properties are stressed; and as a “remedy of spirit,” in which its “indigenous origin” is more valued, as if kambô was a kind of shamanic power plant analogous to peyote and ayahuasca.

Labate, B. C., & Lima, E. C. D. (2014). Medical Drug or Shamanic Power Plant: The Uses of Kambô in Brazil. Ponto Urbe. Revista do núcleo de antropologia urbana da USP, (15).
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Labate & Coutinho – "My Grandfather Served Ayahuasca to Mestre Irineu": Reflections on the Entrance of Indigenous Peoples into the Urban Circuit of Ayahuasca Consumption in Brazil

January 1, 2014 / Anthropology & Sociology, Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Papers, Publications / By / ,

Ayahuasca-Liane, D., & Peyote-Kaktus, D. (2014). Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie• Journal of Medical Anthropology. Curare, 37(2014), 3.
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Peyote as Medicin: an Examination of Therapeutic Factors that Contribute to Healing

January 1, 2014 / Anthropology & Sociology, Biology & Ethnobotany, Mescaline / Cacti, Papers, Publications, Substance Use Disorder / By /

Abstract

The therapeutic value of particular “hallucinogenic” plants is recognized by various cultures throughout the globe, with evidence suggesting that the medical and ritual use of these plants may date back several millennia in some instances. Peyote, a psychoactive cactus, is considered a medicine by many Native Americans, and has been hailed as a cure for alcoholism despite having no “scientifically” accepted medical use. The notion that hallucinogenic compounds may have therapeutic applications, however, is increasingly supported by scientific research. Despite the heavy focus of allopathic medicine on pharmacology, the therapeutic value of peyote must be understood in holistic terms. By uniting Gordon Claridge’s work on the Total Drug Effect with the work of Daniel E. Moerman and Wayne B. Jonas on the Meaning Response, and with Toksoz Karasu’s Agents of Therapeutic Change, a therapeutic model emerges that can explain how the symbolic, ritual, and community components of the peyote ceremony combine with peyote’s distinctive pharmacological properties to produce a unique and efficacious healing experience.

Ayahuasca-Liane, D., & Peyote-Kaktus, D. (2014). Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie• Journal of Medical Anthropology. Curare, 37(2014), 3.
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