Teorías, Actores y Redes de la Ayahuasca

The use of ayahuasca, even in its original indigenous context, is not a fixed body of traditional knowledge but rather a dynamic network of human and non-human actors—including spirits, biochemical substances, specialists, clients, and theories—that transform the practice as they perform and disseminate it. This paper surveys the diversity of ayahuasca's composition, uses, and agents across the Amazon, describing it in terms similar to modern science and technology.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The use of ayahuasca, even in its original indigenous ground, cannot be described as a culturally variable but culturally bounded body of traditional knowledge, ritual or shamanic technic.This paper describes it rather in the way in which modern science and technology are described, as a network of human and non human actors (spirits, bio-chemical substances, specialists, clients, theories on its principles and goals) that transform it as long as they perform and disseminate it.The paper is a tentative survey on the diversity of composition, uses and agents of ayahuasca throughout the Amazon.