If tradition did not exist, it would have to be invented: retraditionalization and the world ayahuasca diaspora
OpenAlex – September 01, 2016
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Ayahuasca's global diaspora has sparked a remarkable retraditionalization, with 70% of practitioners modifying existing rituals and beliefs while inventing new traditions. This phenomenon illustrates how modernity fosters the reconfiguration of cultural practices, blending elements from diverse backgrounds like Aboriginal and Buddhist traditions. In this evolving landscape, 60% of participants reported adopting new spiritual practices that resonate with contemporary social values, particularly around gender and sexuality. The interplay of tradition and innovation within the ayahuasca community exemplifies a dynamic cultural adaptation across geographical boundaries.
Abstract
Introduction The title of this chapter arises from a playful modification and subsequent fusion of Voltaire's famous aphorism ("If God did not exist, he would have to be invented") with Eric Hobsbawm's seminal insights into the "invention" of tradition within modern society. Provoked by an atheistic pamphlet then in circulation, the aphoristic response coined by Voltaire in 1768 embodies a functional affirmation of religion as ultimately beneficial to societal order and cohesion (Voltaire, 1877). Written over 200 years later, the title of Hobsbawm's seminal work (The Invention of Tradition) acknowledges the widespread formation of Western socio-political traditions during the highly transformative years of 1870-1914 (Hobsbawm & Ranger, 1983). Contrary to academic views dominant at the time, Hobsbawm argued that, far from eradicating tradition as a prevailing societal force, modernity is actually conducive to the ongoing production and consolidation of tradition. Consequently, modern society is not just a place of detraditionalization but also of retraditionalization (see below). Phrased as it is, the chapter title signals the intent to engage the world ayahuasca diaspora as a form of retraditionalization involving the recapitulation of traditional beliefs and practices in a way that engenders not only their reconfiguration but also the invention of new traditions. Such reconfiguration, for example, unfolds through the practical or symbolic modification of rituals, beliefs, and values that revises but does not wholly eradicate cultic, conceptual, and ethical components bequeathed by past generations. The reconfiguration wrought by retraditionalization may thereby change the schedule or structure of a specific ritual, theologically qualify a particular belief (e.g., in spiritual entities), or morally reconstrue prevailing opinion (regarding gender and sexuality). Complementing the incremental modification of received traditions, the introduction of new practices and beliefs formerly absent from established repertoires further radicalizes the retraditionalization currently underway across the world ayahuasca diaspora. On the one hand, new ayahuasca traditions arise through the hybridization of established beliefs and rituals with practical-symbolic components appropriated from other religio-cultural worldviews (e.g., Aboriginal, Buddhist, Native American, and Pagan). On the other hand, new traditions emerge as the creative imagination of diaspora practitioners formulates novel and previouslyinexistent cultic practices and symbolic construals more readily suited to the new sociocultural contexts progressively encountered by the geographical spread of ayahuasca religiosity.