Ponto Urbe
December 30, 2014
Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Edilene Coffaci de Lima
6 citations
Since the mid-2010s, the use of the secretion from the Phyllomedusa bicolor frog (kambô) has spread in large Brazilian cities, and later in European and North American cities. Traditionally used by indigenous groups of the southwestern Amazon (Katukina, Yawanawá, Kaxinawá) as a hunting stimulant, kambô now attracts dual interest: as a "science remedy" emphasizing its biochemical properties, and as a "soul remedy" valuing its indigenous origins. Urban diffusion occurs mainly in alternative therapy clinics and Brazilian ayahuasca religious settings. Applicators include indigenous people, former rubber tappers, holistic therapists, and doctors. This ethnography analyzes the discourse these diverse applicators construct around kambô, some understanding it as a 'plant of power' analogous to peyote and ayahuasca.
Ponto Urbe
December 1, 2009
Marcelo S. Mercante
6 citations
In Brazil, ayahuasca is used as a tool to help overcome drug addiction and alcoholism. Five institutions currently employ this approach. The Ablusa organization, led by psychiatrist Wilson Gonzaga, holds ayahuasca sessions (called "Vegetal") for homeless people in São Paulo, aiming to restore human dignity. A key aspect is the role of "mirações" (spontaneous mental images experienced during ritual ayahuasca use) in the recovery process from chemical dependency and alcoholism.
Ponto Urbe
June 30, 2017
Danielli Katherine Pascoal Da Silva
5 citations
Based on fieldwork with Vegetal preparations in the UDV, the effects of Hoasca are not attributed exclusively to DMT in Psychotria Viridis and the beta-carbolines in Banisteriopsis Caapi, but to mutual learning between human and plant intelligences. This view aligns with Indigenous perspectives in which ayahuasca is seen as a being whose therapeutic action depends on relationships among humans and with other beings. Recent neuroscience studies present ayahuasca as a promising next-generation antidepressant, conceptualizing depression as an imbalance in brain monoamines and evaluating antidepressant effects through interactions between DMT/beta-carbolines and serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.
Ponto Urbe
December 20, 2013
Tiago Coutinho
2 citations
Healing in the Nixi Pae ayahuasca rites offered in large Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo operates through a controlled form of ordering misunderstandings. Monthly meetings of about thirty people consume forest medicines—ayahuasca, snuff, and kambô—under a young Kaxinawa shamanic apprentice and a Jungian psychologist. The ayahuasca-induced visions generate psychic material interpreted by the seeker. The article hypothesizes that the mythical Kaxinawa being Yube resonates with the Jungian concept of the unconscious, creating a metaphorical continuum that recasts individual narratives considered pathological as meaningful, enabling healing through shared misunderstanding.
Ponto Urbe
December 1, 2010
Beatriz Caiuby Labate
2 citations
In April 2010, the Legislative Assembly of Acre granted honorary citizenship to the founders of three ayahuasca religions: Raimundo Irineu Serra (Santo Daime), Daniel Pereira de Mattos (Barquinha), and José Gabriel da Costa (União do Vegetal). Three years earlier, in April 2008, these religious groups had petitioned the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage to recognize ayahuasca as Brazilian intangible cultural heritage. The text describes these official acts of recognition and the religious movements' efforts to preserve their cultural and spiritual traditions.
Ponto Urbe
December 1, 2011
Katerina Volcov, Henrique Antunes, Roberta Costa et al.
1 citation
Common questions about ayahuasca's role in treating drug addiction are raised, such as whether one substance can cure addiction to another, if ayahuasca itself is a drug, and whether users can become addicted to it. The text reports on the I Encontro 'Ayahuasca e o Tratamento da Dependência,' a conference held from September 12 to 14, 2011, at the Geography Amphitheater of the university, which addressed these and related issues. The gathering explored the potential of ayahuasca as a treatment for substance dependence, reflecting on its therapeutic mechanisms and societal perceptions.
Ponto Urbe
December 1, 2009
Aline Ferreira Oliveira
1 citation
This article reflects on a spiritual movement known as Sacred Fire, aiming to outline elements of this phenomenon by considering its ritual practices—including the use of tobacco, ayahuasca, saunas, dances, and fasting retreats—in terms of what Vargas (1998) calls "intensive bodies." According to Vargas, the search for experiences of intensive corporeality opposes the contemporary analgesic tendency of bodies. Drawing on fieldwork, the author uses Vargas's (2006) analysis of urban psychoactive use as "deep games," practices and modes of engagement that involve substances as mediators for producing "alter-actions" as "actions of others." The article delineates some of the meanings attributed to "medicines" in Sacred Fire, such as ayahuasca and tobacco, seeking elements to express how subjects relate to these "spirits" considered as beings endowed with action and intentionality.
Ponto Urbe
December 1, 2009
Wagner Lins Lira
1 citation
This article, the second chapter of a dissertation, examines the institutional mobilizations of the Sociedade Espiritualista União do Vegetal (SEUDV) in Pernambuco, Brazil, a dissident ayahuasca group whose doctrine follows the principles of Master José Gabriel da Costa. Through an ethnography of two dissident ayahuasca groups—the SEUDV in Riacho das Almas and the Centro de Harmonização Interior Essência Divina in Riacho Doce—the text traces the agreements, conflicts, and dissipations that arise when new groups emerge within the ayahuasca religious field. It aims to understand how these groups claim legitimacy amid the relative institutional and spiritual legality of dissident ayahuasca practitioners.
Ponto Urbe
December 27, 2024
Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Anna O. Ermakova, Jordan Sloshower et al.
In February 2023, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released a 2020 report titled 'Ayahuasca: Risks to Public Health and Safety' to the legal team of the Church of the Eagle and the Condor, following Freedom of Information Act requests. This article challenges several claims in the DEA report, highlighting factual omissions, theoretical biases, and misinterpretations of existing data. The authors argue that the report minimizes ayahuasca's safety profile and therapeutic potential while overemphasizing risks, and fails to include current research demonstrating its potential benefits.