3 The religion of the forest: reflections on the international expansion of a Brazilian ayahuasca religion

In the 1930s, a new religious community called Santo Daime emerged from Brazil's Amazon rubber camps, founded by Raimundo Irineu Serra, an uneducated grandson of enslaved Black people. The church blended folk religious and spiritual traditions around consuming ayahuasca, which they called daime. Its early members were mostly Afro-Brazilian migrants from the northeast, and their social world included rubber camps, military bases, traditional gender roles, and cultural exchange among Europeans, Afro-Brazilians, and Indigenous Amazonians. The group remained small, stable, and largely unknown outside its region until the 1970s.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In the 1930s, a new religious community emerged from the rubber camps of Brazil's Amazonian hinterlands, founded by a charismatic leader, Raimundo Irineu Serra, referred to by his followers as Mestre (Master) Irineu. He was born in the impoverished state of Maranhão, the grandson of black slaves, and had no formal schooling. The nascent church of Santo Daime represented a fusion of multiple folk religious and spiritual influences centered on the consumption of a psychoactive beverage best known in the academic literature as ayahuasca, but referred to by the group as daime. The initial community was small and included mostly AfroBrazilian migrants from northeast Brazil. Their social milieu included the rubber camps and military bases in the Amazon frontier, a traditional view of gender roles, and cultural exchange between Europeans, Afro-Brazilians, and indigenous Amazonian peoples. The group remained small, stable, and mostly unknown elsewhere in Brazil until the 1970s.