Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1092403 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 168 pages

About the Author
MARLENE DOBKIN DE RIOS is a medical anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon and the coast on plant hallucinogens and healing. She is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, and Professor Emerita of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. De Rios has spearheaded research on the plant hallucinogen, ayahuasca in Peru, Brazil, and the United States. The author of six books and several hundred articles on hallucinogens and culture, she resides in Southern California.

ROGER RUMRRILL is a well-known Peruvian journalist and author of 25 books. He is a recognized expert on Amazon themes, including narco-trafficking, biological wealth of the Amazon, and social and cultural issues of indigenous peoples in Peru and other regions of Latin America.

Customer Reviews

Not to be missed if you like Shamanism
A Hallucinogenic Tea, Laced with Controversy: Ayahuasca in the Amazon and the United States, 168 pages from Praeger Publishers (July 30, 2008). Authors MARLENE DOBKIN DE RIOS and ROGER RUMRRILL discuss Amazon Shamans (Ayahuascaros, among other terms that have slightly different meanings) use of a tea made from the Ayahuasca plant, native to the Amazon.

There are few true Shamans left, according to the Shamans de Rios interviews for the book. Training takes two years and requires many hardships, such as forays into the forrest, severe diets, celibacy: so much so, that the Amazon youth prefer city life to taking up tribal customs, such as Shamanism.

That's not to say they don't produce their own brand of Shamanism to tourists, offering Ayahuasca Tea (without the proper prayers, chanting, etc) to tourists. This is called "Drug Tourism" and the authors detail what Drug Tourism is and how it is harming Tribal life and how it affects how the plant is disappearing from the Amazon.

This is a great book that discusses the manners in which Shamans train, believe, go about their vocation, administer to local tribes (mostly women and children). With drinking the tea, a Shaman 'communicates' with spirits (not as we in the West describe them) then help whomever comes to him. In it's proper respect, Ayahuasca Tea helps the proper Shaman delve into the problem, thus helping his 'customer'.

Improper use of the tea has skyrocketed, and many false Shamans have sprung up around the Countries. Countries don't seem to mind, as the 'drug tourism' brings in much needed capital. Although Shamanism is dying out, the religion it professes has spread to many Western and Industrialized Nations, including the United States.

And there was the problem, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency here in the U.S. When the religion started, the U.S. placed the tea on their list of forbidden substances. After many years and lawsuits later, the religion won their right to use the tea for their services.

The book is enjoyable, as the authors discuss conversations with Shamans, details religious rites, reasons for using the Hallucinogenic Tea, their use of psychology, biology, counseling, consultation of spirits, etc., the authors do repeat themselves quite often.

Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in Cultural Anthropology, Shamanism, Amazonin Influences, Religions.