The last two decades have seen a broad expansion of the ayahuasca religions, and it has also witnessed, especially since the millennium, an explosion of studies into the spiritual uses of ayahuasca. Ayahuasca Religions grew out of the need for an ordering of the profusion of titles related to this subject that are now appearing. This publication offers a map of the global production of literature on this theme.
Three researchers located in different cities (Beatriz Caiuby Labate in São Paulo, Rafael Guimarães dos Santos in Barcelona, and Isabel Santana de Rose in Florianapolis, Brazil) worked in a virtual research group for a year to compile a list of bibliographical references on Santo Daime, Barquinha, UDV and urban ayahuasqueiros, including the specialized academic literature as well as esoteric and experiential writings produced by participants of these churches. Ayahuasca Religions presents the results of that collaboration.
Ayahuasca Religions includes two essays commenting on aspects of the bibliography. The first presents a profile of these religious groups, including their history and expansion, and a general assessment of the principal characteristics, tendencies, and perspectives evident in the literature about them. The second essay summarizes the most important studies of human subjects in the context of Santo Daime, Unio do Vegetal and Barquinha, evaluating their results, contributions, and limitations. The essay also offers some preliminary anthropological reflections on biomedical research of ayahuasca.
About the author
Dr. Beatriz Caiuby Labate (Bia Labate) is a queer Brazilian anthropologist based in San Francisco. She has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Her main areas of interest are the study of plant medicines, drug policy, shamanism, ritual, religion, and social justice. She is Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines (http://chacruna.net, https://chacruna-iri.org, https://chacruna-la.org). She serves as Public Education and Culture Specialist at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and Adjunct Faculty at the East-West Psychology Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She is also a member of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board’s Research Subcommittee, and Diversity, Culture, and Ethics Advisor at the Synthesis Institute. Additionally, she is a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP) in Brazil and editor of its site. She is author, co-author, and co-editor of twenty-four books, two special-edition journals, and several peer-reviewed articles (https://bialabate.net).
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