The plants are always speaking: Extended multispecies liminality through dieta
March 5, 2026 DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/c7atr_v3 via OpenAlex
Summary
Eleven maestros from five indigenous groups in the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon describe inter-species communication through plants, emphasizing that apprenticeship with teacher plants and participation in around 200 ayahuasca ceremonies lead to lasting transformations. The concept of extended multispecies liminality is proposed, highlighting a state of permanent plant-human co-habitation resulting from these rituals. This account challenges traditional views on ritual by presenting these practices as technologies with real inter-species effects rather than mere symbols of belief.
Study at a glance
| Design | ethnographic study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 11 |
| Population | maestros from five indigenous groups in the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon |
| Key finding | Apprenticeship dietas produce lasting somatic, perceptual, and dietary transformations that persist years beyond formal dieta conclusion. |
Abstract
"It was the plants that told us” is what eleven maestros from five indigenous groups across the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon have told me over a decade and twenty-seven months of fieldwork. This article takes that statement seriously as an empirical description of inter-species communication. Drawing on intensive apprenticeship including multiple dietas with Amazonian teacher plants and approximately 200 ayahuasca ceremonies, I propose the concept of extended multispecies liminality: a permanent state of plant-human co-habitation produced through the ritual technologies of dieta, altered states ceremony, and sonic integration. Through what is, to my knowledge, the first in-depth ethnographic account of chiric sanango (Brunfelsia chiricaspi) dieta, I present evidence that apprenticeship dietas produce lasting somatic, perceptual, and dietary transformations that persist years beyond formal dieta conclusion. Extended multispecies liminality extends van Gennep and Turner's foundational ritual theory by demonstrating that liminality need not resolve. It extends multispecies ethnography by documenting not relations across species boundaries but their permanent dissolution. And it challenges representationalist approaches to ritual by insisting that the practices documented here constitute actual technologies with concrete inter-species effects, not symbolic performances of cosmological belief.