Interpellations and challenges in the neoshamanic and ayahuasca fields in Uruguay
OpenAlex – February 15, 2018
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Ayahuasca and other neoshamanic practices have significantly influenced Uruguayan culture, with over 5,000 participants engaging in these rituals since the 1990s. These practices challenge national stereotypes of Uruguay as a "white" and "secular" nation, fostering dialogues around indigenous spirituality and therapeutic alternatives. The legal landscape has evolved, particularly with cannabis legalization for medicinal and recreational use. This chapter explores how ayahuasca and cannabis coexist, revealing both tensions and similarities in their cultural significance within Uruguay's unique societal framework.
Abstract
Since the 1990s, three major (neo)shamanic linages associated with sacred plants use have arrived in Uruguay. Each one comes from a particular Latin American national context: Brazil and its ayahuasca religions, Peru and vegetalismo, Mexico and the Red Path. In what way do these practices and discourses develop in a Latin American country imagined as "white," "without indigenous people," and "secular," such as Uruguay? To what extent do the incorporation of these neoshamanic practices question the hegemonic narratives of the state-nation? National stereotypes come into play, with neoshamanisms being both product and producers of these processes of reaffirmation and the breaking down of stereotypes. In this chapter, the author briefly describes the arrival of these practices to Uruguay, their specificities and adaptation, and the different relations they established, particularly regarding the use of indigenous spiritualties and sacred plants as therapeutically alternatives. The author also analyzes the legal and social status of ayahuasca (associated with ritual and spiritual uses) in Uruguay, where the medicinal, industrial, and recreational use of cannabis has recently been legalized. Which similarities and differences, dialogues and tensions, exist between use of these two psychoactive substances in the Uruguayan context?