Accidental Environmentalism: Nature and Cultivated Affect in European Neoshamanic Ayahuasca Consumption
Existing research demonstrates a positive connection between psychedelics and increased nature relatedness. Enhanced affective ties toward nature are widely framed as being built into the pharmakon itself, and the relevance of experiences remains little understood. This paper turns to neoshamanic ay...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Anthropological Association
[2021]
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| In: |
Anthropology of consciousness
Year: 2021, Volume: 32, Issue: 1, Pages: 55-80 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Europe
/ Neopaganism
/ Shamanism
/ Ayahuasca
/ Psychedelic experience
/ Feeling for nature
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| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements NCG Environmental ethics; Creation ethics ZA Social sciences |
| Further subjects: | B
nature relatedness
B Europe B Ayahuasca B Ritual B Neoshamanism |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Existing research demonstrates a positive connection between psychedelics and increased nature relatedness. Enhanced affective ties toward nature are widely framed as being built into the pharmakon itself, and the relevance of experiences remains little understood. This paper turns to neoshamanic ayahuasca ceremonies in Europe, exploring the way specialists and attendants refer to nature in speech and performance. I argue that ritual framings performed during these ceremonies provide fertile ground for affective ties to emerge through substance-induced experiences. I trace such framings by exploring how medicine and healers are being coded; how specific materialities are rendered meaningful; and how individual experiences are discussed at such retreats. I argue that even while participants prioritize individual healing, personal development, or the satisfaction of psychonautical curiosity, environmentalism appears to be anchored by the proceedings themselves. Thus, this paper opens up for analysis ceremonial substance use as a contact zone where coherence is produced intersubjectively. |
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| ISSN: | 1556-3537 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Anthropology of consciousness
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12130 |