FOREST SHAMANISM IN THE CITY: THE KAXINAWÁ EXAMPLE

• Autor(a) principal: Coutinho,Tiago
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Sociologia & Antropologia
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2238-38752016000100159
• topic: Urban shamanism; Ayahuasca; Transcultural therapies; New Age spirituality; Therapeutic ritual

Abstract Setting out from interactions experienced throughout four years of field work studies, I focus on a therapeutic ritual involving ayahuasca consumption led by two young Kaxinawá shamans. The article undertakes the discussion of the equivocal compatibilities that make possible the interaction between Amerindians and non-Amerindians in this context. Citing a number of interactive contexts beyond the rite's space-time axis, the text explores the sense of mutual understanding that occurs thanks to a 'synonymous effect'. This effect places spirits and mythological beings, for example, on the same psychological and sentimental level, creating a metaphorical continuum between those involved in the communication. Ethnographic data suggests that urban Nixi Pae rites explore the equivocal compatibility between two terms that give rise to this communication context: Yube and the unconscious.