El arte de ver. Chamanismo y búsqueda visionaria en los awajún (Perú)

Among the Awajun people of Peru, personhood and the acquisition of a new soul are constructed through the use of psychotropic plants such as tobacco, angel trumpet, ayahuasca, and chagropanga, along with associated words, discourses, and implicit logics. These processes involve both shamanism and vision quests, which hold different meanings for common people versus shamans. The vision quest requires a purge and spiritual experience to become 'clean, beautiful, adorned' and achieve a life of plenty, while shamanic practice demands contamination to become prickly and access the invisible. These perspectives are opposite yet complementary, as shamanic practice protects individuals from magical aggression or witchcraft during the vision quest.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In this paper, I address the processes of constructing person and the acquisition of a new soul in the Awajun society (Jivaro linguistic family, Peru). This is based on psychotropic plants —tobacco, angel trumpet, ayahuasca and chagropanga—, the words and discourses about them as well as the implicit logics. On the other hand, it involves shamanism and vision quest. We will realize that these respective logics have different meanings to different people (common people or shaman): they are both opposite and complementary. Opposite, since the vision quest assumes a purge and a spiritual experience to be “clean, beautiful, adorned” and to have a life of plenty while shamanic practice requires a contamination to be prickly and to be able to gain access to the invisible. These perspectives are complementary, since the shamanic practice protects the individual from magical aggression or witchcraft during the vision quest.