Shamans’ gardens: sites of creative equivocation between Indigenous and internationalized ayahuasca shamanism
Journal de la Société des Américanistes January 1, 2025 Françoise Barbira-Freedman, Stephen Hugh‐jones
Ayahuasca shamanism is well studied, but the medicinal plant gardens commonly found at ayahuasca centers have received less attention. This paper provides detailed mapping and commentary on one such garden, identifying a relatively stable set of plants typical of Amazonian vegetalismo that defines shamans' gardens as a genre. Visitors develop personal relationships with plants, while shamans adopt biomedical and psychotherapeutic vocabulary. These ethnobotanical gardens become sites of constructive equivocation, where contrasting cultural assumptions find partial accommodation.