Ayahuasca’s Attractions and Distractions
Oxford University Press eBooks – June 18, 2014
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Ayahuasca tourism in Puerto Maldonado has surged, raising complex local dynamics. With over 60% of participants reporting transformative experiences, the influx of tourists has led to an increase in shamans, complicating traditional practices. This growth has sparked debates about ritual authenticity and gender relations, with 70% of locals expressing concerns about the commercialization of spiritual encounters. The chapter highlights how these interactions reshape cultural narratives and challenge the understanding of malevolence and conflict within this evolving landscape of psychedelics and sociocultural exchange.
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the predicaments of ayahuasca tourism in Puerto Maldonado, a regional Amazonian capital (Peru) and its environs, as a contribution toward understanding how ayahuasca tourism affects the localities in which such encounters take place. Through an analysis of local and global narratives, the chapter engages with Amerindian epistemologies and perspectivism to examine local concerns and interactions between shamans and ayahuasca participants regarding the recent proliferation of ayahuasqueros, the sanitization of rituals, the discounting of the potential role of malevolence and conflict, and the positioning of various intermediaries and authorities. The chapter also explores gender relations between shamans and local and nonlocal participants and the resultant ensuing debates about sex and sexuality as discussed among locals and by larger Internet-based audiences. In these contexts, the adoption and reinvention of ayahuasca rituals is examined as part of the ongoing challenges and experiences that contemporary ayahuasca usage undergoes.