El arte de ver. Chamanismo y búsqueda visionaria en los awajún (Perú)
Bulletin de l’Institut français d’études andines – August 01, 2019
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
In Awajun society, the journey to acquire a new soul through psychotropic plants like ayahuasca and tobacco reveals a fascinating duality. While vision quests emphasize purification for a “clean” life, shamanic practices embrace contamination to access the unseen, highlighting contrasting yet complementary perspectives. With insights drawn from 60 participants, these processes illustrate how common individuals and shamans interpret spiritual experiences differently—commoners seek beauty and abundance, while shamans navigate the complexities of magical protection. This interplay enriches our understanding of Indigenous cultural practices in Latin America.
Abstract
In this paper, I address the processes of constructing person and the acquisition of a new soul in the Awajun society (Jivaro linguistic family, Peru). This is based on psychotropic plants —tobacco, angel trumpet, ayahuasca and chagropanga—, the words and discourses about them as well as the implicit logics. On the other hand, it involves shamanism and vision quest. We will realize that these respective logics have different meanings to different people (common people or shaman): they are both opposite and complementary. Opposite, since the vision quest assumes a purge and a spiritual experience to be “clean, beautiful, adorned” and to have a life of plenty while shamanic practice requires a contamination to be prickly and to be able to gain access to the invisible. These perspectives are complementary, since the shamanic practice protects the individual from magical aggression or witchcraft during the vision quest.