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Die Psychologisierung der Funktionen von Musik und Drogen in westlichen Interpretationen indianischer Magie
Abstract
Dieser Beitrag steht im vorliegenden Band exemplarisch für außereuropäische Konzepte von Musik, Religion und Psychologie. Wenn auch sehr spezifische Aussagen zu regionalen Konzepten und Techniken aus dem westamazonischen Raum das Hauptaugenmerk meines Beitrages bilden, so können doch viele der vorgestellten Problematiken auch andernorts und in anderen Kontexten wieder erkannt werden.
... This constitutes the most prominently marked difference between Indigenous and modern understandings of ayahuasca: ayahuasca had to -by itself, as a substance -show therapeutic effect, and clients would be those who had to go through the hallucinatory experience. Thus, a "psychologization" of the whole process took place (Brabec de Mori, 2013;Labate, 2014). Remarkably, Indigenous thought attributes efficacy to the healer's power, knowledge, and experience, while Westerners cannot but attribute efficacy to the substance-as-ingested. ...
During the last decades, ayahuasca gained much popularity among non-Indigenous and out-of-Amazonia based populations. In popular culture, it has been advertised as a natural remedy that was discovered by Indigenous peoples ante millennia and that has been used for shamanic healing of all kinds of ailments. This “neo-shamanic,” and often recreational, use of ayahuasca, however, has to be distinguished from traditional Indigenous praxes on the one hand, and, on the other hand, from medical investigation in the modern world. The former, Indigenous use mainly understands ayahuasca as an amplifying power for interacting with non-human beings in the animal, plant, or spirit realms. Within this paradigm, efficacy is not dependent on the drug, but on the correct communication between the healer (or sorcerer) and the non-human powers that are considered real and powerful also without resorting to ayahuasca. The latter, modern mode of understanding, contrastingly treats the neurochemical processes of MAO inhibition and dimethyltryptamine activity as trigger mechanisms for a series of psychological as well as somatic responses, including positive outcomes in the treatment of various mental conditions. I argue that there is an ontological incommensurability occurring especially between the Indigenous and medicinal concepts of ayahuasca use (with recreational use in its widest understanding trying to make sense from both sides). Modern medical applications of ayahuasca are so fundamentally different from Indigenous concepts that the latter cannot be used to legitimate or confirm the former (and vice versa). Finally, the deep coloniality in the process of appropriation of the Indigenous by the modern has to be questioned and resolved in any case of ayahuasca application.
This article examines the phenomenon of shamanic tourism, which began in Amazonia in the 1980s. The author has researched the phenomenon since the early 2000s—while it was still at its infancy—in Iquitos, Peru, which is today considered the mecca of shamanic tourism. Contemporary Amazonian shamanism emerged as a response to the violent and disruptive process of the rubber boom; however, in the context of tourism, it is viewed as the healing force for bodily and mental ailments that stem from what is perceived as the West's spiritual impoverishment. The article reviews the phenomenon of shamanic tourism and the challenges it presents in the 21st century, situating it within larger scholarly conversations on ethnic tourism and cultural appropriation. Finally, potential avenues for future research are presented. Este artículo examina el fenómeno del turismo chamánico, que comenzó en la Amazonía en la década de 1980. He investigado el fenómeno desde principios de la década de 2000—cuando todavía estaba en su infancia—en Iquitos, Perú, hoy considerado la meca del turismo chamánico. Aunque el chamanismo amazónico contemporáneo surgió como una respuesta al proceso violento y disruptivo del auge del caucho, en el contexto del turismo, es visto como la fuerza curativa para las dolencias corporales y mentales que se derivan de lo que se percibe como el empobrecimiento espiritual del Occidente. El artículo revisa el fenómeno del turismo chamánico y los desafíos que presenta en el siglo XXI situándolo dentro de conversaciones académicas sobre turismo étnico y apropiación cultural. Finalmente, presento posibles vías para investigaciones futuras.
In Südamerika entwickelt sich seit mehr als zwei Jahrzehnten eine Form des Tourismus, bei der westliche Reisende den halluzinogenen Trank Ayahuasca einnehmen. Ayahuasca hat einen zentralen Platz im Selbstverständnis nativer Gruppen. „Meisterpflanzen“ des Regenwaldes werden von Mestizen und Ureinwohnern zur Wahrsagerei, Hexerei und zu Heilzwecken eingesetzt. Ayahuasca ist ein Sud, der Erbrechen, starke visuelle Effekte, intensivierte Denkprozesse und starke Emotionen auslöst. Die Motivation westlicher Touristen ist häufig durch Wünsche nach persönlicher Einsicht, Selbstaktualisierung und spiritueller Erfahrung geprägt, wobei auch Hoffnung auf körperliche Heilung eine Rolle spielen kann. Der Ayahuasca-Tourismus in Südamerika kann mit einigen Einschränkungen als Sonderform psychedelischer Psychotherapie angesehen werden.
El extracto acuoso de Banisteriopsis Caapi, Psychotria Viridis y Brugmansia sp., bastante conocido en la Selva como Ayahuasca (brebaje), por sus efectos purgativos y psicotrópicos, constituye el eje central del curanderismo (shamanismo) en toda la hoya amazónica. Estudios antropológicos, psicológicos y fitoquímicos demuestran que puede ser utilizado con fines beneficiosos para el tratamiento de las toxicomanías y la patología mental a condición de impartirlo adecuadamente. Las observaciones que se han realizado en el comportamiento del extracto permiten sugerir mejoras en su preparación. Asimismo se constata en el tratamiento de pacientes que las sesiones curativas no sólo se ven influenciadas por los principios activos β-carbolínicos y triptamínicos, sino que se ven modificadas por el estado psicosomático del paciente, factores ambientales naturales y otros condicionados por el terapeuta.
One country's sacrament is another's illicit drug, as officials in South America and the United States are well aware. For centuries, a hallucinogenic tea made from a giant vine native to the Amazonian rainforest has been taken as a religious sacrament across several cultures in South America. Many spiritual leaders, shamans, and their followers consider the tea and its main component - ayahuasca - to be both enlightening and healing. In fact, ayahuasca (pronounced a-ja-was-ka) loosely translated means spirit vine. In this book, de Rios and Rumrrill take us inside the history and realm of, as well as the raging arguments about, the substance that seems a sacrament to some and a scourge to others. Their book includes text from the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances and interviews with shamans in the Amazon.
One country's sacrament is another's illicit drug, as officials in South America and the United States are well aware. For centuries, a hallucinogenic tea made from a giant vine native to the Amazonian rainforest has been taken as a religious sacrament across several cultures in South America. Many spiritual leaders, shamans, and their followers consider the tea and its main component - ayahuasca - to be both enlightening and healing. In fact, ayahuasca (pronounced a-ja-was-ka) loosely translated means spirit vine. Ayahuasca has moved into the United States, causing legal battles in the Supreme Court and rulings from the United Nations. Some U.S. church groups are using the hallucinogen in their ceremonies and have fought for government approval to do so. The sacrament has also drawn American drug tourists to South America to partake, say authors de Rios and Rumrrill. But they warn that these tourists are being put at risk by charlatans who are not true shamans or religious figures, just profiteers.
In this book, de Rios and Rumrrill take us inside the history and realm of, as well as the raging arguments about, the substance that seems a sacrament to some and a scourge to others. Opponents fight its use even as U.S. scientists and psychologists continue investigations of whether ayahuasca has healing properties that might be put to conventional use for physical and mental health. This book includes text from the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances and interviews with shamans in the Amazon.
The ayahuasca brew (Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis) was introduced very recently among the Matsigenka and Yora (Nahua) indigenous people of southern Peru. The Matsigenka used Banisteriopsis liana previously, however they did not learn to add the potent Psychotria admixture in preparing the brew until the 1950s. Introduction of ayahuasca to the Yora (Nahua) was even more recent and drastic. Shortly after their contact and decimation by contagious diseases beginning in 1985, the Yora adopted ayahuasca and abandoned previous shamanic substances and rituals. These two case studies demonstrate how quickly and completely ayahuasca shamanism can be adopted, supporting the idea that widespread ayahuasca use even among indigenous populations may be fairly recent. The studies also attest to diversity and dynamism in indigenous practices on par with the differences observed among various urban ayahuasca practices.
In Arizona, a white family buys a Navajo-style blanket to be used on the guestroom bed. Across the country in New York, opera patrons weep to the death scene of Madame Butterfly. These seemingly unrelated events intertwine in Cannibal Culture as Deborah Root examines the ways Western art and Western commerce co-opt, pigeonhole, and commodify so-called “native experiences.” From nineteenth- century paintings of Arab marauders to our current fascination with New Age shamanism, Root explores and explodes the consumption of the Other as a source of violence, passion, and spirituality. Through advertising images and books and films like The Sheltering Sky, Cannibal Culture deconstructs our passion for tourism and the concept of “going native,” while providing a withering indictment of a culture in which every cultural artifact and ideology is up for grabs-a cannibal culture. This fascinating book raises important and uncomfortable questions about how we travel, what we buy, and how we determine cultural merit. Travel-be it to another country, to a museum, or to a supermarket-will never be the same again.