Use of Ayahuasca among Rubber Tappers of the Upper Juruá
Fieldwork in Religion November 27, 2008 Mariana Ciavatta Pantoja, Osmildo Silva Da Conceição 1 citation
Ayahuasca, known locally as cipó, was introduced among rubber tappers in the Alto Juruá region of the Brazilian Amazon through interactions with indigenous populations and their shamans. Some rubber tappers became apprentices and later renowned healers. Beginning in the 1980s, ayahuasca use became intertwined with the rubber tappers' political struggle against rubber bosses, merging ayahuasca mysticism with political conflict. New syntheses emerged with the incorporation of elements from the Santo Daime religious doctrine. The article is co-authored by an anthropologist and a rubber tapper whose initiation into ayahuasca combined non-indigenous and indigenous elements, resulting in an original synthesis narrated in first-person.