SACRALIZAÇÃO DA NATUREZA E O USO RELIGIOSO DA AYAHUASCA: PERCEPÇÃO E ÉTICA AMBIENTAL DA FLORESTA AMAZÔNICA AOS CENTROS URBANOS
ACTA Geográfica September 8, 2021 Julien Marius Reis Thévenin, Talita Benaion Bezerra Thevenin, Carlos Teodoro José Hugueney Irigaray 2 citations
The relationship between social groups and nature is shaped by religious and philosophical systems. The trajectory of urban-industrial society, driven by profit, has led to serious environmental problems, including deforestation of the Amazon. This article examines how perceiving the sacred in nature relates to environmental ethics and pro-ecological behaviors. Based on bibliographic-documentary research, direct observations, notes, and semi-structured interviews with members of three Daimista centers, one Barquinha center, and twenty-seven local branches of União do Vegetal—religions that ritually use ayahuasca tea in Rondônia, Brazil—the results indicate that as individuals spontaneously recognize the sacred in nature, their environmental awareness and ethical stance toward the environment gradually expand. However, these attitudes depend not only on individual adherents, some of whom lack ecological behavior, but on institutional arrangements that guide sustainable territory management.