Ayahuasca Calling: Sacredness and the Emergence of Shamanic Vocations in Denmark and Peru
This article addresses the sacredness of Ayahuasca from the perspective of the global shamanic vocation. If encounters with Ayahuasca are said to revitalize forms of sacredness in contemporary societies, this is perhaps clearest in cases where individuals understand themselves to be called to lead c...
Authors: | ; ; |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Published: |
American Anthropological Association
2022
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In: |
Anthropology of consciousness
Year: 2022, Volume: 33, Issue: 2, Pages: 255-278 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Peru
/ Denmark
/ Ayahuasca
/ Shamanism
/ Vocation
|
RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion KBE Northern Europe; Scandinavia KBR Latin America |
Further subjects: | B
Shamanism
B Sacredness B Ayahuasca B Vocation B Secularism |
Online Access: |
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Summary: | This article addresses the sacredness of Ayahuasca from the perspective of the global shamanic vocation. If encounters with Ayahuasca are said to revitalize forms of sacredness in contemporary societies, this is perhaps clearest in cases where individuals understand themselves to be called to lead ceremonies. Recognizing the global scale of Ayahuasca shamanism, we compare facilitators of ceremonies in two societies to discern differences and similarities in how Ayahuasca vocations exist in differently modernized societies: Peru, a predominantly Catholic society with a substantial Indigenous Amazonian population and an active Ayahuasca shamanism tourism sector, and Denmark, a secular society in Northern Europe, where Ayahuasca is illegal. Building on recent reappraisals of Weber’s reflection on vocation and Durkheim’s theory of the sacred, we argue that being called by Ayahuasca to follow shamanic vocations in contemporary societies leads to tensions around the need to both justify and resist the rationalization of Ayahuasca. |
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ISSN: | 1556-3537 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Anthropology of consciousness
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12165 |