Brazilian Ayahuasca religions in perspective

An anthropologist interprets the symbolic experience of urban Brazilian members of União do Vegetal (UDV), a religious group that uses ayahuasca (called Hoasca or 'the Vegetal'). Based on 15 years of observation and field research conducted in 1998 at the Nucleus Alto das Cordilheiras in Campinas, a city in southeastern Brazil's industrialized region, the author analyzes how participants derive meaning from the psychoactive tea made from Psychotria viridis (chacrona) and Banisteriopsis caapi (mariri). The work, which formed the basis of a master's thesis in social anthropology, seeks to understand the symbolic dimensions of the UDV experience within an urban Brazilian context.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The author focuses on the anthropological observation of Unio do Vegetal (UDV), which he started 15 years ago and continues up to the present, as well as on field research that he carried out in 1998 in the UDV unit called Nucleus Alto das Cordilheiras, in Campinas. It was the basis of author's Master's thesis in social anthropology the city of Campinas is situated in the State of Sao Paulo, southeast of Brazil, in one of the country's most economically developed and industrialized regions. The author seeks to reach an interpretation of the symbolic experience of the urban Brazilian participants of the UDV. Hoasca is the name given by the participants of UDV to ayahuasca, simply named 'the Vegetal', a tea with psychoactive properties made from the concoction of the leaves of Psychotria viridis, which they call chacrona, with the vine Banisteriopsis caapi, known as mariri.