Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper AmazonIn the Upper Amazon, mestizos are the Spanish-speaking descendants of Hispanic colonizers and the indigenous peoples of the jungle. Some mestizos have migrated to Amazon towns and cities, such as Iquitos and Pucallpa; most remain in small villages. They have retained features of a folk Catholicism and traditional Hispanic medicine, and have incorporated much of the religious tradition of the Amazon, especially its healing, sorcery, shamanism, and the use of potent plant hallucinogens, including ayahuasca. The result is a uniquely eclectic shamanist culture that continues to fascinate outsiders with its brilliant visionary art. Ayahuasca shamanism is now part of global culture. Once the terrain of anthropologists, it is now the subject of novels and spiritual memoirs, while ayahuasca shamans perform their healing rituals in Ontario and Wisconsin. "Singing to the Plants" sets forth just what this shamanism is about--what happens at an ayahuasca healing ceremony, how the apprentice shaman forms a spiritual relationship with the healing plant spirits, how sorcerers inflict the harm that the shaman heals, and the ways that plants are used in healing, love magic, and sorcery. |
Contents
Two Healers of the Upper Amazon | 3 |
CHAPTER 4 | 40 |
Learning the Plants | 52 |
Copyright | |
28 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon Stephan V. Beyer Limited preview - 2009 |
Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon Stephan V, Beyer Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Achuar agua de florida Aguaruna Amazonian animals anthropologist apprentice ayahuasca ayahuasca drink ayahuasca vine ayahuasca visions ayahuasquero blowing tobacco smoke body brujo called camalonga Centro Espirita Beneficiente chacruna Chaumeil Controlled Substances Act culture cure Descola diet dieta Dobkin de Ríos Don Agustin Rivas don Roberto doña María dreams drinking ayahuasca drug effects example experience hallucinations hallucinogenic harmaline Harner healer human icaros Indians indigenous ingested Iquitos jungle Luna & Amaringo magic darts mapacho mariri McKenna medicine mestizo shamans mouth Pablo Amaringo pathogenic patient Perruchon person Peru phlegm plant spirits protection psychoactive pusanga Quichua Reichel-Dolmatoff Retrieved ribereño sacha Santo Daime says shacapa Shipibo Shoemaker Shuar Shuar shaman Shulgin sickness singing songs sorcery soul Strassman substance sucking Taussig term tobacco smoke toé told traditional tree tsentsak Tukano União do Vegetal University Press Upper Amazon visionary vomiting Whitten woman Yagua